7days that canchange the world

IFAW Animal Action Week2006 1-7 October

Making Wavesfor Seals

The Story of Seals

The first seals lived in the Pacific Ocean off what is nowCalifornia. Over millions of years they dispersed through-out the North Pacific and into the Atlantic via an ancientwaterway that separated North and South America. Theylater moved into the Southern Hemisphere.

Seals have evolved to take advantage of the richresources of the sea while maintaining close ties to theland where they rest, molt, give birth and nurse theiryoung. Today, seals are found all over the world, but thelargest numbers live in the cold of the Arctic andAntarctic, where food is most abundant.

Many legends and stories have become part ofthe myth of these beautiful sea creatures.

In some tales, the seals are said to turn into peo-ple when they come ashore. In one such story, abeautiful girl turns back into a seal and is tragi-cally killed by her fisherman husband.

Although most seals feed mainly on fish, theleopard seal eats penguins and sometimes otherseals. The largest seal population in the worldbelongs to the crabeater seal, which does notactually eat crabs at all, but instead feeds on krill (small shrimp-like creatures), which it filtersthrough teeth that are specially adapted for this purpose.

Seals come back ontoland, which is knownas “hauling out,” formany reasons, includ-ing resting, molting,giving birth and nurs-ing. Species such asharp and hooded sealshaul out onto ice and

turn this frozen paradise into a vast nursery withthousands of seal pups and their mothers.

Some seals will migrate thousands of milesbetween their feeding and breeding grounds.Others can dive to incredible depths. The north-ern elephant seal holds the record for the deep-est dive at more than 3,280 feet (1,000 meters).The longest dive ever recorded is one hour, 13minutes in the Antarctic by a Weddell seal.

Scientists believe seals evolved from land animals that were relatedto modern mammals like dogs and bears. These creatures took tothe sea about 30 million years ago, perhaps because there wasmore food available there. The earliest fossils of these seal ancestorsdate back more than 23 million years.

Elephant SizedThe largest of all species is the northern elephant seal, with male “bulls” weigh-ing up to almost four tons, as heavy as a large truck. They can grow to 21 feet(6.5 meters) in length. They got their name because their large noses remindedpeople of the trunks of elephants. The smallest species in the world are ringedseals and Baikal seals. They weigh up to only 140 pounds (64 kilograms) andare about 4 feet, 6 inches (1.37 meters) in length.

4

©IFA

W/S

tew

art C

ook

©Dan Costa

©IFA

W/D

avid

Whi

te©

IFAW

/Pet

ra D

eim

er

The scientific name for seals is pinnipeds, which means fin-footedand refers to their webbed feet.

Seal Science

There are 33 species of seals and sea lions(the Caribbean monk seal would be the34th species, but is now considered extinct).These are divided into three families orgroups.

There are 18 species of true seals, which arealso known as “earless seals” and havesmall holes for ears just behind their eyes.

The second group includes 14 species of furseals and sea lions, which are often called“eared seals” because of their small exter-nal ear flap. Finally there is the walrus,which merits a group all its own. It has acombination of the features of the other

two types of seal, but also some major differences.Unlike other pinnipeds, the walrus is the onlyspecies that grows large tusks.

Seals range in size from small female fur seals ofabout 110 pounds (50 kilograms) to huge malenorthern elephant seals weighing almost four tons(3,600 kilograms). In many species the males arelarger than the females.

True seals cannot bring their rear flippers forward towalk on land, so they use strong claws on theirfront flippers to haul themselves along the ice orground. Fur seals and sea lions can bring their hind

flippers beneath their body to situpright, walk or run on land, eventhough rather awkwardly.

All seals are perfectly adapted to theirunderwater environment. Their bodiesare sleek and streamlined for swim-ming fast. Their noses are on the topof their head making it easy tobreathe on the surface of the water.They can even sleep underwater forbrief periods.

Seals are warm-blooded and feed ontheir mother’s milk as pups. That milkhas such a high fat content that someseal pups will put on as much as fivepounds (2.2 kilograms) a day inweight. Most of that growth goesinto a layer of fat under their skin,which is called blubber.

True seal

Eared sealThese seals are named‘eared seals’ becausethey have ear flaps.

Cool CustomersSeals are so well insulated they can overheat. To cool down in warmerclimates, they bury themselves in the cool sand. To cool off in the water, fur sealsand sea lions wave their hind flippers above the water.

5

©IFA

W/J

on H

rusa

©IFA

W/I

. Gav

rilov

These seals are named ‘true seals’ because they have no ear flaps.

©IFA

W

©IFAW/Jon Hrusa

Threats to Seals

Sad Seals?Seals have beautiful large eyes, but they lack the ducts to drain away tearsso, on land, they often appear to be “crying.” In reality, it is just becausethere is nowhere else for the tears to go.

Trapped in NetsEvery year thousands of seals become entangled in fishing nets and are drowned.Drift nets float free in the sea, sometimesmany miles long, catching huge numbers ofseals, other marine mammals, and even diving birds, in underwater walls of death.

PollutionThe oceans are being used as dumpinggrounds for all sorts of waste that are harm-ful to seals and all marine life. The poisonouschemicals from industry and our everydaylives at work, school and home all too often

find their way into the sea. Toxic waste, such aspesticides, can collect in the blubber of seals. Itis believed the seal population in the Baltic Seais declining because of pollutants that affectthe seals’ reproduction. Factory waste frompaper mills has been dumped into the world’slargest freshwater lake in Russia, Lake Baikal,home of the Baikal seal.

Habitat Loss and ClimateChangeAs humans have developed coastal areas andencroached on the world’s seas, often makingthem busy shipping highways, parts of theseimportant habitats have been closed off toseals and other marine life. Climate changemay have a number of significant impacts onseal populations, not the least because warm-ing temperatures are greatly reducing the icewhere some seal species traditionally haul outto give birth to their young.

6©IFAW/Stewart Cook

©IFA

W/S

tew

art C

ook

©IFA

W/A

lexa

nder

Lus

kin

©IFA

W/D

a C

osta

Apart from commercial hunting, seals face many other threatsaround the world. These include entanglement in nets, pollution,habitat loss and climate change.

Front or Rear EngineEared seals swim with their front flippers and use the rear ones to steer.But earless seals swim using their rear flippers for propulsion and frontflippers for steering.

7

©IFA

W/S

tew

art C

ook

©IFAW

Seal Hunting

Shivering SealsWhen harp seal pups are first born they keep warm by shivering. Inside theirmother’s womb it is cozy, but once they enter the icy world outside they oftenface temperatures below freezing.

HistoryOver the past 200 years, commercial huntinghas brought some species to the brink ofextinction. In the 19th century, fewer than100 northern elephant seals were left alive –all elephant seals today are descended fromjust those few. Walruses were also huntedextensively for ivory and their blubber, whichwas made into oil. The Atlantic walrus usedto live along the east coast of North Americafrom Labrador to Cape Cod, but the entireeast coast population was hunted to localextinction by 1800.

Seals were hunted in most places where theycame into contact with people, but graduallythe majority of countries ended the killing.However, large-scale commercial hunting stilltakes place in Canada, Russia, Greenland,Norway and Namibia.

The Largest Marine MammalHunt in the WorldBetween 2003-2005 more than one millionharp seals were killed in Canada, making it byfar the largest hunt for any marine mammal inthe world. The quota for the hunt in 2006 was335,000, one of the highest ever.

This huge hunt has been hotly debated by thepro- and anti-sealing sides of the issue formany years. The Canadian government andother seal hunt supporters say it is humane andwell regulated. Supporters claim it is necessaryto control seal numbers because seals eat toomany of the fish that fishermen rely on for aliving. Those opposed to the hunt, whichincludes many Canadians and millions of otherpeople around the world, argue that it is cruel,puts the seal population at risk, and that sealsare not to blame for reduced fish numbers.

Today an average of more than 300,000 harpseals are killed every year in Canada, mainly sotheir fur can be used by the fashion industryaround the world. The killing of 10,000 hood-ed seals each year is also permitted in Canada.

Seals have been hunted for centuries. The Inuit have always huntedseals in the Arctic. Archeological evidence suggests that seals werehunted by people living on the east coast of North America as longas 4,000 years ago. It is also known that they provided food andfur to Norse settlers in Greenland from around A.D. 985.

8©IFAW/Stewart Cook

©IFA

W/S

tew

art C

ook

©IFA

W/S

tew

art C

ook

©IFA

W/D

avid

Whi

te

Nose BalloonAdult male hooded seals have the strange ability to inflate the black sac, or“hood,” which hangs over the end of their nose. Adult males can also inflate theskin-like membrane in their noses, so it forms a large red balloon. They do thiswhen they are being aggressive or defensive, and possibly to impress thefemales!

Other Hunts and Culls Around the WorldIn other annual hunts around the world, about 75,000 harp seals from thesame population as those off the coast of Canada are landed in Greenland’ssummer hunt, more than 40,000 harp seals in Russia and 40,000 fur seals inNamibia. Norway kills 9,500 seals in the White Sea and thousands of othersoff its own coast. The South African fur seal hunt was suspended in 1990.The numbers listed above do not tell the full story – the Greenland huntactually kills more than 150,000 seals, because for every animal that is land-ed, an additional one has been killed but not recovered.

Scientists point to this high “struck-and-lost” rateas one of the cruelest aspects of such hunting. Italso leads to unsustainability since the numbersare not included in hunt or population statistics.

Common or harbor seals are found in UK waters,as well as 35% of the global population of grayseals. In Scotland, there have been repeated callsfor seal culls (reducing the population). These callsare led by fishermen who are concerned that the

seals are eating large amounts of fish that they believe would otherwise beavailable for them to bring ashore. The law in Britain is so vague that sealscan even be shot if they are just in an area where fishing gear is in use.

The Australian fur seal is also regarded as a problem by fishermen and a significant number are killed each year in traps and nets or shot.

In the USA, the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits importing, hunting,capturing or killing of marine mammals except for scientific research, public display, and the incidental harming of these animals in the course of commercial fishing.

Fisheries CompetitionThe claim that seals are damaging fish stocks is always used as one of theexcuses for commercial seal hunts and culls.

However, scientists say the simplistic argument that seals eat fish and there-fore if you kill them there will be more fish for fishermen is nonsense. Sealseat many predators of commercially caught fish and removing seals may infact have the opposite effect and actually reduce those fish numbers. Thereality is that the situation is incredibly complex, but overfishing is universallyaccepted as the primary cause of collapsing fish populations.

Scientists report that the hunt puts the harpseal population in danger because killing suchhigh numbers each year is not sustainable. A recent scientific survey shows that theCanadian government’s plan for harp seals risks reducing the population by 70%.Scientists also point out that there is no evidence that killing seals helps protect fishstocks. The collapse of the cod stocks inCanada was caused by overfishing – even most fishermen agree that is the case.

With subsidies in the late 1990s of $20 million,as well as other expenses, the hunt costsCanadian taxpayers money and yet accountsfor only a small part of a fisherman’s income.

Harp seals give birth to their young in the Gulf of St Lawrence and off the coast ofNewfoundland in late February and earlyMarch each year, turning the ice floes into agiant white nursery. Despite a decision in the1980s by the European Economic Communityto ban the import of whitecoat seal pup pelts,in recent years more than 95% of the sealskilled have been younger than three monthsold. It is legal to kill seal pups once they startto molt, at about 14 days old.

The sealers club and shoot both pups and adult animals. As clubs, they sometimes usehakapiks, which have a large metal spike onthe end. One of the problems with shooting is that seals are sometimes wounded and goback into the water to die slow and painfuldeaths.

9©IFAW/David White

©IFA

W/S

tew

art C

ook

©IFA

W/F

loria

n G

rane

r©

IFAW

/Ste

war

t Coo

k

Protecting SealsAround the World

Seal SongMale bearded seals are very vocal and produce a distinctive song, perhapseven a dialect unique to specific regions. These songs may be used to attractfemales or to defend underwater territories during the spring breeding season.

In the 21st century, scientists now advise thatwe should begin protecting and conservingwildlife and their habitats long before speciesbecome rare and more difficult and costly toprotect. At present, a third of all seal speciesare listed on the IUCN (The World ConservationUnion) Red List, which means they are at risk. In some cases, such as the Mediterranean monkseal, the whole species is listed as criticallyendangered.

Campaigning AgainstCommercial Seal HuntingThe campaign against the Canadian sealhunt is backed by politicians from the USA,Europe, and other parts of the world.According to a 2005 poll, 69% of Canadianswere opposed to the commercial hunting ofseals. In the USA, seals are protected by theMarine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA),which was passed by Congress in 1972. TheMMPA prohibits, with certain exceptions,the “take” (capture or killing) of marinemammals in US waters and by US citizens on the high seas, as well as the importationof marine mammals and marine mammalproducts into the USA.

10

©IFA

W/S

ea M

amm

al R

esea

rch

Uni

t

©IFA

W/F

loria

n G

rane

r

©IFA

W/S

tew

art C

ook

© NOAA

The three key reasons for opposition to the hunt are:

• Cruelty – A report by an internationalpanel of veterinarians revealed that up to42% of the seals are skinned alive.Clubbing is inherently cruel and shootingoften leaves seals to die slow and painfuldeaths underwater.

• Not sustainable – Scientists warnthat the current level of killing cannot continue without putting the harp sealpopulation at risk.

• Not economically viable – RecentCanadian government grants of $20 mil-lion far outweigh the annual landed valueof seals. Sealing accounts for less than onetenth of one percent of Newfoundland’seconomy and is only a small fraction of afisherman’s income.

The biggest success in the campaignagainst the commercial Canadian seal hunt was when the European EconomicCommunity banned the import of white-coat harp seal pelts in the 1980s. Huntnumbers dropped substantially for severalyears after the ban, but have now risensharply again.

These beautiful marine mammals are among the most wonderful wild animals we ever encounter. For more than 30 years IFAW has been campaigning internationally to protect seals like these around the world.

In the past two years a number of coun-tries have introduced, or are considering,bans on the import of seal skins and sealproducts, including Italy, Belgium, Mexico,the UK, Greenland and the Netherlands. In the United States, seal imports arealready prohibited.

IFAW has campaigned against commercialseal hunts in Russia, Namibia, Norwayand Greenland, and opposed seal culls in Scotland, Australia and other parts ofthe world.

Mediterranean Monk SealsThe Mediterranean monk seal is on the brink of extinction; it isthe most endangered marine mammal in Europe. It is believedthat there are only about 500 left alive in the world!

IFAW is co-funding a four-year project to look at interactionsbetween monk seals and fisherman in order to reduce thedeliberate and accidental killing of the monk seals. Recently it has produced surveys on monk seals by collaborating withfishermen and using its research vessel, Song of the Whale.

Rescues – Cape CodThe shores of Cape Cod are renowned for whale strandings; sometimes sick orwounded seals are also found on thebeaches. IFAW works with the Cape CodStranding Network to help rescue themand release them back into the sea.

You can watch seals and sea lions at manyplaces along the east and west coasts ofNorth America. If you do see one, don’tget too close. They may look cute but theyare wild animals. Seals get nervous whenhumans come too close and may bite.Make sure you keep your dogs away fromseals as well.

Ice LoversPagophilic is a technical term meaning “ice-loving.” Pagophilic seals are thosewho use ice for some period in their lifecycle. Pagophilus is the genus to whichthe harp seal belongs. Its scientific name, Pagophilus groenlandicus, means “the ice-lover from Greenland.”

11

©IFA

W/J

on H

rusa

©IFA

W/R

icha

rd M

cLan

agha

n

©IFAW/Stewart Cook

Oil SpillsIFAW’s Emergency Relief Team worksaround the world to protect marine wildlifewhen there are major oil spills. It also cam-paigns with governments internationally tostop ships from deliberately dumping bilgeoil and to improve shipping regulations byrequiring oil tankers to have twin hulls,which are less likely to break and spill oil if they run aground.

What You Can Do to Help SealsDon’t litter! Seals can get sick or even diefrom accidentally swallowing plastic pel-lets, broken plastic toys or plastic bags.Sometimes seals, seabirds and othermarine animals get caught in scraps ofmonofilament fishing net, pieces of plasticstrapping, or six-pack yokes. You can helpdeal with the litter problem by cleaning up your local beach, but make sure you do so safely.