Story by Ian Bruce
Grey Seal Conservation Society (GSCS)
Nova-Scotia, Canada

Fox Harbour is a charming seaside hamlet. This small waterfront township runs parallel to Wallace Harbour, famous in the mid 1800's for its sandstone quarries. At an earlier time, slabs of this distinctive stone were carted by trolley down to the water's edge and shipped around the country. Today hundreds of buildings throughout Canada and the United States are made from Wallace Sandstone, including Province House in Halifax and the parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada.

(Artist Unknown)

 

 

In the past, French Acadian's colonized the region until their expulsion in the late 1700's. Cloaked in historical overtones with proof of native Mi'kmaq occupancy, and through the construction of Acadian dykes, are, on the whole, visible reminders of these former settlers tenure. Shipbuilding and the "Golden Age of Sail" too was a significant part of the communities' heritage.

 

 

Near the mouth of the harbour entrance is a larger island that some locals point out is fashioned like a lobster, this sandy-beached peninsula is called Oak Island, and it is here within this protected wildlife habitation that we encountered hundreds of grey seal pups.

(Shellfish closure map courtesy of DFO)

A few weeks prior to discovering this wonderful occurrence of thriving new life, the surrounding beach area was crowded with thousands of sociable, gregarious, and lively grey seals, whose singular purpose of existence was to perpetuate the ancient rhythms of the sea by means of pupping, weaning and renewed affections of the amorous kind.

The early morning was refreshingly crisp while sparse beauty lined the walking trail to the low-lying beach enclave. Standing on the shore overlooking the breathtaking expanse of the snow-white covered ice field, one got a sense of the great northern tundra with its bleak remoteness…musk oxen, walrus, polar bears and migrating herds of caribou played on the imagination.

The late morning sun was unusually bright this day, the sky, real blue and the current of air, feathery light as we made our way across the barren ice bridge. We were traveling atop "solid" crystallized water and soon it became apparent that perceptible signs of life were stirring on the distant horizon.

As we wandered along the sheet of ice, the surface was crunchy under our feet, and from time to time we discovered a graceful sequence of patterns embedded in the icy snow - visual traces of seal tracks and their novel ways of locomotion...

(click on image to enlarge)

These long winding trails hollowed out by the young seal traveler were intriguing, the inner impressions were smooth and cup shaped, and when blended with the outer flipper-paw indentations, reminded me of similar outlines created by the magnificent female sea turtles of the tropics coming ashore to lay her clutch of eggs.

We were getting nearer to the whelping colony as physical signs dotted the ice sheet that living mammals were a foot. Dark tubular remnants of seal scat were encountered, along with opaquely tinted yellow snow. These frozen and inert byproducts eventually end up gradually dissolving and because of the circular pathways of nature's intricacy and elegant refinement, supply-enriching nutrients to oceanic ecosystems, and in time, conceivably assist in fertilizing the plankton blooms of spring.

"Grey Seal Scat"
(Every time I hear this expression, I mull over the enormous expense Canadians pay scientists to analysis this item, all to determine what seals are eating - I suspect fish...)

 

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