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Index of Subjects Not sure exactly what "branding" is in this program and not sure if I really want to know. But it sounds a bit cruel. Animal researchers are usually held to higher standards, even for presumed pest species. Whatever one's opinion is on the seal hunt, It seems more humane to club/shoot a seal pup than burn it in the interests of science. Just my two cents, Nancy On 2015-05-27, at 2:16 PM, Ken McKenna <kenmcken@eastlink.ca> wrote: > > Ken McKenna > Box 218 Stellarton NS > B0K 1S0 > 902 752-7644 > > On May 7, 2015, I was surveying the beach at Big Island in Pictou County for Piping Plovers. I had just seen a single bird on the beach when I saw a raven leaving the beach a few hundred meters to the east. I did not want predators in the area so went to look to see what was attracting the bird. It was a young seal carcass with what looked like a bullet hole. It was reasonably freshly dead or maybe had been trapped in ice and recently free and I decided to pull it out into the water to see if it would be carried out with the tide. I flipped the seal over doing this and noted it was branded with this info: 9R2. > > After contacting several people, I finally got the name Dr Mike Hammill a pinniped research scientist from DFO at the Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli QC. He indicated the Gray Seal was branded on nearby Pictou Island in February, 2015. He noted the branding program was designed to follow the animals through their lives. He indicated not much would be seen of them for the first 4 years but when they start reproducing they show up on a regular basis on breeding colonies. When this occurs, they are able to estimate survival rate between birth and first breeding as well as survival rates after that as part of the population monitoring program. He said only 40-50% of pups born survive to age 5. Ten years ago 60-670 % survived to that age.He felt that most of the mortality would occur in the first year but the difference now is that the population has increased so much that juvenile mortality has probably gone up as a density-dependent response due to increased completion for food- the young ones have a harder time- or like this one met a different fate ( my comment) > > Just thought I would pass it on in case someone has an interest. > > By the way, the seal seemed to disappear and I did not see it in subsequent visits.
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