Hundreds Of Seal Pups Drown

But abnormally warm conditions this year mean there is no ice in the strait, so some seals had to give birth on the beaches of Pictou Island. Unusually high tides hit the island this week after a major storm. "The majority of those seals born above the high water mark have been lost. We're estimating ... that of about 2,000 pups that were born prior to the storm, we lost about 1,500," said Jerry Conway, a marine mammal adviser for the federal Fisheries and Oceans Department. Television pictures showed dead seal pups littered on one of Pictou Island's beaches. Jane MacDonald, one of the island's few permanent residents, said the mother seals had tried hard to save their offspring. "The mothers just push them and push them with their nose, and they dive back under and push them back up, and they get back into the tide wash, and then a big wave will hit and just sweep them back out to sea," she told CBC television. Conway said it was not uncommon for seals in the Northumberland Strait to give birth on land. "I've been with the department 27 years and I can remember at least half a dozens instances when there hasn't been ice of sufficient strength (for seals to give birth there)," he told Reuters from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-02-03T174136Z_01_N03180911_RTRIDST_0_CANADA-ENVIRONMENT-CANADA-SEALS-COL.XML&archived=False [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on February 7, 2006]

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