Seal hunting, past, present and future

Most people probably think that seal hunting has gone the way of whale hunting in that only a few small countries still practice it. That maybe somewhat true......but only somewhat.

The Farallon Islands, off the coast of California had a huge colony of seals until hunting almost wiped them out. Then the International North Pacific Fur Seal Treaty of 1911 between the United States, Russia, Canada and Japan put a stop to it. But it has taken almost 100 years for the seals to comeback but the population is still nowhere near what it was prior to the horrible hunting wipe outs before then.

The Farallon Islands are a success story but seal hunting is still very much alive in Canada. They even have a Canadian Sealers Association which is very active in promoting seal skin products to Russia. They are the ones who are promoting the killing of harp seal pups for their own financial gain.

Harp seal pups are born on the ice flows each February. Their mothers feed them for about 12-14 days and then leave them to fend for themselves until they are old enough to swim, which is about 10-12 weeks. During that time is when seal "hunters," and I use that term loosely, go out the ice and bludgeon the poor pups to death and skin them.

Why cant those "hunters" find another way to make a living? Try moving out of the area and find something else to do like equipment leasing, being a tour guide or perhaps educate others to stop the seal hunt altogether.

The future is up to us, yes you and me. Only we can shape the population of the seals of the future.

Baby dolphins dying

Are the baby dolphins that are washing up on the Gulf Coast shorelines the result of the BP oil spill or is something else going on? That is the question that is currently circulating through the news wires. On the NBC nightly news, the reporter claimed that the oil was the possible cause due to the contaminated fish that the mother dolphins were eating while pregnant. Since the gestation period for a dolphin is close to a year long, it would be almost impossible to determine if the mother dolphin was in the oil spill area for that entire time or even part of the time.

What we have to wait for is the toxicity results of the autopsies of the baby dolphins to be completed and that will take a few more weeks. Knowing that us humans also use the rivers that flow into the gulf waters as sewer lines, I would not be surprised to find that other factors would be in the report.

Antibiotics, those nasty best weight loss pills, household cleaners and all sorts of other chemicals could have contributed to the deaths. We also have no idea what is going on in Mexico and the other countries that also border the Gulf.

Seal fur is still bing used for clothing

I thought that gone were the days of baby seals being beaten to death on the ice flows for their skins, but apparently not. A friend of mine was doing some online shopping just before Christmas and she found a website that featured the apple bottoms (jeans) she was looking for. On the same page was a model showing off a full length seal fur coat. I just about gagged!!

So what happened? Did people forget the ghastly movies and photos of dead baby seals and blood covered ice?

DONT buy fur this Christmas

It is making a comeback! Fur coats are now creeping back to becoming in vogue again. The hideous coat in the photo above is made out of otter. It costs about $1K and is being sold online. I found it at eBay, Amazon and other venues. You see people will buy something online that they don't have to pass through a line of protesters in front of a fur coat store.

Don't be a sneaky online shopper and buy fur clothing made from baby seals or otters. Spend Cyber Monday supporting a good cause instead of supporting an industry that should have died decades ago.

Skin conditions of sea mammals

A question was brought up in class the other day by a fellow student that got me stumped. He asked if whales or dolphins could get eczema like land mammals do. Eczema is word that covers a very broad condition with a variety of skin irritations. Even dandruff is a form of eczema. While the class pondered the question, the instructor guided us on a discussion to try and figure out the answer.

Since all skin has the potential to become irritated then the answer would be yes whales and dolphins could have eczema. But since eczema was often characterized with dry patchy skin then maybe dolphins and whales could not get it, while seals and sea lions could. We also pondered if the eczema treatment would be salt water but only if the animal lived in the water 100% of the time. So for an animal not to have eczema we figured out that living in water may or may not have a bearing on the condition but the type of skin might. You see, whales and dolphins have a different type of skin than a seal does, so its personal biology would be a huge factor.

Our discussion was interesting but I still came away with more questions than answers.

My true feelings about the oil spill in the Gulf

Warning: this post may offend some of you

Ok, I have heard just about enough news on the TV about the oil spill in the Gulf and I am pissed. What I am pissed off about is the fact that almost all of the coverage is about how people are affected by the spill. The TV news is covering how people are losing their businesses and work. Well boo who. People can move, find other lines of work, start other businesses. Damn it, what about the sea life that can't move, are having their homes destroyed and some of them will not live through this disaster to continue their species. Instead of the TV news continually covering the economic part of the disaster just to sell commercial air time to viagra and sleep aids, why don't they cover what the Sierra Club, The National Wildlife Federation and other conservation clubs are doing.

I am sorry if I offended some of you but I just had to say that.

Wounded sea lion rescue

Here is a disturbing video about a sea lion at Moss Landing that is in dire need of help but is eluding the people trying to rescue it. I warn you ahead of time that the sea lion is badly wounded and you might not be able to watch the video. The sea lion is just one of many that left the San Francisco Bay and traveled north to the coast of Oregon in search of food.

Another lonely Thanksgiving

The Holidays, when people have family to visit, except when they don't have family around. That has been my story for the last 5 years. My mother past away 6 years ago, dad 9 years ago and my only sister has been in and out of drug rehab for the last 12 years so she is not what I call a close family member anymore. I guess that is why I divert my energies to wildlife and sea life rescue and rehabilitation.

Speaking of sea life rehab, the sea life rescue in Alaska just released 2 seal pups, named Cupcake and Starburst,......was someone eating at the time they got named,... back into the wild just over a month ago. Last word on their release is that they were doing just fine.

Misidentified sea monsters

Mammals and sea life are often misidentified when they are washed up on shorelines. Take for example the many strange lifeforms that have been found washed up along the shoreline of New York. One of the more well known ones was called the Montauk Monster (pictured below)


What at first appears to be a four legged creature with a beak like mouth is in reality a decomposing land mammal. There is evidence of fur on one of the legs. The creature also has teeth and not a beak. The animal has hand like paws which resemble a raccoon and not a dog as many people originally thought. The face had been either eaten away or got caught in something which may or may not have resulted in the animals death.

The bottom line is.... a picture is not always the best way to identify an unidentified creature. An autopsy or DNA test should be done to determine the what the creature truly is.

Baby beluga whales born in aquariums

Here is the latest birth announcements of beluga whales born in aquariums all over the world. First is a beluga whale born in the Vancouver Aquarium in Canada in June 2009. The female calf is the second beluga born in that aquarium in less than a year. This is a very welcome birth because it is estimated that only 100K belugas are left in the wild. Also infant mortality rates for baby beluga whales are around 50% in the wild and the reason is yet unknown.

Next is another female born June 12 at SeaWorld in San Antonio. They are currently looking for a name for the young female. Here is a picture of her just after she was born:

Fat and happy

In the ocean the fish and mammals depend on their body size to survive. If they are too small for their species then they don't often live long enough to reproduce. Whales, for example, need extra blubber to survive the far northern or southern cold oceans. Their weight loss supplements are in the form of brine shrimp or large schools of small fish. Only the Killer Whales will feast on the larger prey animals like seals, dolphins, tuna and sharks.

It is not only sea mammals that need to have extra body mass but fish do too. A thin under weight fish usually has a health problem going on and lack of energy to escape from larger fish hunting it.

Sea life birth announcements

If you have not been keeping tabs on the sea mammals baby announcements here is a short list:

• Dolphin calf born at the National Aquarium in Baltimore in May 2009
• A baby brown seal was born on June 1, 2009 at the Reykjavík Zoo in Iceland
• The second porpoise ever to be born in captivity was born in May 2009 at the Harderwijk dolphin centre in the Netherlands
  

You can find most of the baby updates at their websites for the institutions mentioned. Some of them have videos too.

Travel to Tasmania

About the only thing people think about when they hear the name Tasmania is the cartoon character, The Tasmanian Devil. Often people's thoughts do not wander much farther than that. When asked where Tasmania is the answers would amaze you. Answers like Africa to somewhere near Transylvania and a few actually do know the right answer, off the coast of Australia.

Being a island, Tasmania has a large coast line. Climate ranges from arid and dry in the interior to mild and wet on the southern half of the island. If you are ever lucky enough to visit the island you will want to go on one of the many Tasmania tours that local companies offer. I personally would be interested in the company that runs "Sealife Experience" which is located 1 hour form Hobart and takes people on tours of the islands sea life habitats.

Hair loss in marine mammals

Hair and fat are the ways that nature insulates both land and sea mammals. Both fat and hair keep the body from losing precious heat during either the colder months or living in colder seas. For sea mammals they either have long hair or extra fat, known as blubber, to insulate their bodies from losing heat.

The larger the sea mammal the less hair they tend to have. Whales and dolphins have very minimal hair while sea otters have plenty of hair. Hair loss in the smaller marine mammals can spell death from exposure. When a large population of marine mammals is suffering from excessive hair loss something is either wrong with the environment or a disease might be the cause. Marine biologists must work fast to see what the underlying cause it and best determine what hair loss treatment to put in place. Can the cause be removed or should the mammals be treated?

Sometimes the cause has been in the environment for years and only time and future prevention can cure the ailment.

Baby dolphin in Baltimore

Baltimore has a baby dolphin and now it has a name. The baby is now 3 months old. Watch the video below to find out the name:

Another oil tanker spill

The Mississippi River has been closed down from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico due to an oil tanker collision. Roughly 400,000 barrels of oil have spilled into the Mississippi so far. The local wildlife rescues are expecting a lot of work ahead with clean up of the shore birds as well as possible sea mammal rescue. The coast guard has set up inflatable barriers to prevent the oil from spreading.

Update on Sea Lion deaths at Bonneville Dam

Last week 6 Sea Lions were found dead in a trap floating near the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. It was reported that they were shot. An autopsy was performed and the results were found that they all died of heat exhaustion. It was not determined how the door on the large floating trap got closed to prevent the Sea Lions from going back into the water. The traps were designed to be manually closed when trapping the animals. The investigation into their deaths is continuing and all trapping of Sea Lions has been suspended. The news story can be found here with a news video.

Sea lions shot

6 Stellar Sea Lions have been found dead. They were shot near the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River that is the border of Washington and Oregon. As you may recall there was an order to remove(at the time they were to be caught and killed)the Sea Lions from the area because it was thought that they were contributing to the decline in salmon numbers. I hardly think that 60 Sea Lions would be the cause for the entire decline of the total salmon numbers on the west coast of the USA When the order came out there was an immediate law suit and stop order to the action by the American Humane Society(good for them). The Sea Lions were then to be caught and relocated to various zoos and other captive areas around the world.

The 6 Sea Lions were found today around noon by the mammal marine biologist working the relocation effort. The Sea Lions were shot in the capture cages on the floating barges set up to catch them. The local authorities are treating the area as a crime scene. They are currently looking into how to remove the bodies to do further exams.

Swimming with dolphins

I am always fascinated by the intelligence of dolphins. They have been depicted as mellow sea mammals with loving attitudes, how wrong can the media be about that! Flipper is the one that comes to mind when most older adults think of dolphins. A Lassie with fins!

The dolphin is a complex mammal with a vicious attitude about sex. They play it rough and will often leave scars on their mate. They are a strong muscled mammal and it amazes me that people on vacation would even want to go swimming with these creatures. It is not just a matter of putting on your one piece swimwear and taking a dip in the pool. There have been countless accounts of "tame" (and I use the word loosely) dolphins attacking humans in swim pools.

All of this does not take into account of how badly the captive dolphin is treated by it's caregivers. Some have extremely small pools and inadequate nutrition. If that wasn't enough to put a dolphin into a bad mood then just put a human on vacation in the same pool and see what happens.

History has shown that humans are mostly to blame for the extinction of sea animals

Yet more proof of man hunting and killing for sport.