Looking exhausted Grey seal pup found at Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia, April 17, 2004, appears to be rather small and thin for its age.	Dark grey with light mottling on back This pup has lost the white fur coat that covered it at birth. An injury (cut) is visible on the right front flipper.	Traumatized pup? Irregular roughness of fur on the back, and around the neck, plus the cut flipper, suggest that this young seal might have been entangled in fishing gear or have experienced some other traumatic encounter.
Classic grey seal profile A nearly straight line from forehead to nose helps to distinguish the grey seal from related species, such as the harbour seal. This pup was found very close to human habitation, practically at the doorstep of the Grey Seal Conservation Society.	Wary of humans - stay back It is illegal in Nova Scotia for people to interfere with or to move marine mammals such as this grey seal pup. Unless, one is a fisherman who has purchased a $5 "nuisance seal" license...	Sea life in generally poor condition? Besides the thin, roughed-up looking appearance of this seal pup, even the seaweed in this photo looks unusually stressed. (Check seaweed pages on www.fisherycrisis.com )

Is this young grey seal in unusually poor condition?

Maybe...

Grey seal mothers suckle their young for 2 - 3 weeks. During this time, very rich milk (60% fat) allows rapid weight gain by the pup, which normally acquires a thick coat of blubber before weaning. This energy reserve must sustain the seal pup through its next life stage: the adjustment period during which the young seal learns to feed itself by catching small fish. If the early hunting success is too low, however, blubber reserves in the pup will become exhausted, and it will starve. This method of lowering population numbers - early starvation of newly independent young - is a fairly common occurrence in nature, and this pattern has been observed to regularly affect the inexperienced (but quickly growing) young of seabirds as well as marine mammals.

The recent declining abundance of fish in the the ocean seems certain to have intensified the challenge of this early feeding adjustment that must be made by the young of marine fish-predators. Juvenile seabirds and marine mammals face an acute "do or die" challenge. In a richer ocean scenario, with a generally greater abundance of small fish (such as existed formerly in the North Atlantic), seal pup numbers would have been more likely to be naturally lowered by large natural predators like sharks, rather than by starvation. Episodes of mass starvation of seal pups have been reported in other parts of the world in recent years. Whether or not this is a real increasing trend is not possible to say with any certainty. However, broad shifting patterns are evident throughout the world's ocean today, and mounting food shortages can be seen to be increasingly curtailing the success of many species, with larger animals being most severely affected.

Does the appearance of one thin grey seal pup in springtime on a bed of yellow seaweed carry an important message about the state of the ocean ecosystem in general? Maybe, maybe not. However, we, and marine science in general, tend not to have our "radars" tuned to the frequency where little "blips" like this one might be seen as significant.

The whole thing, the fish-seal cooperative venture, will not come to an end with a "bang," but with a whimper...

See also: The Starving Ocean