During October, 2010, our guides started reporting what were first thought to be seal kills by polar bears along the Hudson Bay coast in the Manitoba Conservation – Churchill Wildlife Management Area. Consider this account:
Somethings not right with those seals; I’ve only seen 3 kills in the 11 years I’ve worked with FNA and now 7 in a month???
We started consulting with researchers who would be able to help us put context to these observations for our guests. It turned out our observations were inline with accounts from elsewhere in the subarctic:
We have reports of seals dieing further east to Belcher Islands and on to Baffin Bay and Labrador.
After the next report of a ’seal kill’ that came across the radio from our guides in the field, at the request of the researchers and only if it was safe to do so, we asked our guides to a attempt to collect a DNA sample. The opportunity to do just that presented itself and we took advantage of it. We’ve since provided DNA samples to Manitoba Conservation and the Freshwater Institute at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Hopefully by working together we can get to the bottom of this.
This map is the accompanying report we provided the researchers.
Click here for more details about this specific account (date, time, weather, observations, etc.).
Hello their! I love animals & I was wondering do you know why the seals are dying? I would love to know and get a reply with an answer!
Sincerely,
An animal lover
Hi Faithann, Coincidentally just las week we requested an update from Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Please stand by for an update!