Drowning at birth or being clubbed to death are not the best of outcomes for a young mammal. Yet as the latest victims of global warming, harp seal pups face both. Higher sea temperatures in the southern Gulf of St Lawrence have meant a lack of the solid ice that newborn seals need to live on. Thousands of seal pups are assumed to have drowned already.
In response, the Canadian fisheries minister announced last week that hunters would be limited to killing a total of 270,000 harp seals on the Atlantic coast, down from 335,000 last year.
Sheryl…
