An icy
town in Newfoundland is dealing with some surprise visitors: a pod of around 40
harp seals.
The seals
are stuck 4 to 5 miles (6 to 8 kilometers) from the ocean, according to local
fishing guide and bar owner Brendon FitzPatrick, who
shared photographs of the animals on Twitter. The animals
likely swam into inland bays and streams chasing fish and got disoriented, FitzPatrick
wrote on Twitter, adding that this is the highest number of seals seen on shore
in the area.
"In
the beginning, they were kind of aggressive," Sheila Fitzgerald, the mayor
of Roddickton-Bide Am, told
NPR. As the days have dragged on and the fish in the town's
brooks have become less plentiful, the seals have become more lethargic,
Fitzgerald added.
Roddickton-Bide
Am is a town of just under 1,000 people situated near the northern tip of
Newfoundland. The area is a common wintering site for harp seals. Officials
from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DPO) told the newspaper The
Northern Pen that there is little offshore ice near
northeastern Newfoundland this year, possibly part of the overall trend
of major
Arctic melting. With limited sea ice to rest on, the seals
may be hauling out closer to the coast, which makes them more vulnerable to
following streams inland and getting stuck when streams and bays ice over.
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