Latest Pinniped Stories
By Paul DarrowOFF CANADA'S EAST COAST -- Canadian hunters started shooting and clubbing harp seal pups on Saturday at the start of an annual hunt that is the focus of a tech-savvy protest by animal rights groups.This year, 325,000 young seals will be killed on the ice floes off the East Coast where the animals gather.Unusually warm weather means the floes are a fraction of their normal size and thickness, prompting hunters to kill the seals individually rather than clubbing them to death en...
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's annual seal hunt, the focus of a major protest effort by animal activists, will start on Saturday and could last longer than usual because the ice floes on which the seals gather are in poor condition, officials said on Thursday.Canada says a total of 325,000 harp seal pups can be shot or clubbed to death this year. The first stage of the hunt, which takes place on ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence on Canada's East Coast, will account for just over 90,000...
By David LjunggrenOTTAWA -- French film star turned animal rights campaigner Brigitte Bardot tearfully begged Canada on Wednesday to stop the annual harp seal hunt, during which about 325,000 young seal pups will be shot or beaten to death."Before I die I want to see this massacre ended," she told a news conference, sitting in front of a poster that showed a giant seal clubbing a blood-covered human baby.The hunt, which takes place on ice floes off the coast of eastern Canada, is...
TORONTOÂ -- Protesters, celebrities and fishermen were gearing up for Canada's hotly debated seal hunt, set to get under way later this week in the gulf off the Atlantic Ocean.Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has given a cold shoulder to French film legend Brigitte Bardot, who intends to visit Ottawa on Wednesday to implore the federal government to end the regulated slaughter of some 325,000 harp seals.Hearn told the St. John's Telegram in Newfoundland, where the largest leg of the...
By Randall PalmerOTTAWA -- Canada said on Tuesday it would allow 325,000 young seals to be killed this year and accused activists of misleading the public in suggesting that white-coat baby animals were still being slaughtered.Images of the dewy-eyed white-coats dominate the Web sites of environmental groups opposed to the annual Canadian hunt, and two weeks ago former Beatle Paul McCartney got front-page photo coverage when he lay down next to white-coated seals.Since 1987 the killing of...
By David LjunggrenOTTAWA -- Around 1,500 seal pups were swept out to sea and drowned by a tidal surge off Canada's east coast this week after a lack of ice cover meant their mothers were forced to give birth on a small island, environment officials said on Friday.A resident on the island described how the mother seals had frantically tried to push their tiny pups back on to land as they floundered in the storm-tossed water.Grey seals in the Northumberland Strait -- which lies between the...
WASHINGTON -- The growing populations of harbor seals and sea lions along the West Coast may be good news for California condors. While condors are now best known for eating dead deer, cattle and other animals, new research shows that carcasses of marine animals once formed a large part of their diet. Some condors are already finding food in sea lion and seal rookeries that have been growing along the coast, reports Stanford University researcher Page Chamberlain. A large part of the condor's...
Latest Pinniped Reference Libraries
The harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus), also known as the saddleback seal, is a true seal in the Phocidae family. It is native to northern areas of the Atlantic Ocean and to some areas of the Arctic Ocean. Its scientific name means "ice-lover from Greenland,” and it was previously classified within Phoca genus, although studies have shown that it is unique enough to be in a distinct genus. It holds two recognized subspecies, P. groenlandicus groenlandicus and P. groenlandicus oceanicus....
The ringed seal (Pusa hispida), also known as the jar seal, is a true seal in the Phocidae family. Locally, it is known as nattiq or netsik in the Inuit language. It can be found in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, with a range that includes the Bering and Oshtok Seas, the Arctic Ocean, and the coastlines of Japan in the north Pacific. It also occurs in the North Atlantic on the coastlines of Scandinavia, Greenland, and Newfoundland. Within its range, the ringed seal prefers areas with ice...
The Caspian seal (Pusa caspica) is one of the smallest species in the true seal family that is native only to the Caspian Sea. It can be seen on shorelines, rocky islands, and ice blocks that occur throughout the sea. In warmer months, these seals will inhabit northern areas of this range, but in colder months, they inhabit cooler waters and the mouths of the Ural and Volga rivers. It is thought that these seals only occur in the Caspian Sea because they moved there during the Quaternary...
The common seal (Phoca vitulina), also known as the harbor seal or harbour seal, is a true seal in the Phocidae family. It can be found in the northern Pacific, Atlantic, Baltic, and North Seas along the coastlines in these areas. This species holds five recognized subspecies, although the Western Atlantic common seal subspecies is questionably classified. The common seal can reach an average length of up to 6.1 feet and a weight between 120 and 370 pounds. The fur can vary in color from...
The spotted seal (Phoca largha or Phoca vitulina largha), also known as the largha seal or simply the largha, is a “true seal” in the family Phocidae. It is native to northern areas of the Pacific Ocean and neighboring seas, preferring to reside on sea ice. Its range includes the continental shelf of the Okhotsk and Bering Seas, Chukchi, and Beaufort. Its southern range extends to the Yellow Sea. When it migrates, it can be found in the Sea of Japan and northern Huanghai. During the...
