Seals in trouble

Salon - More than 180 seals have washed up on the shores of Maine alone in August, with most of them either already dead or eventually dying, according to Maine Public. Meanwhile Sarah Perez, a rescue assistant with the New Hampshire Seacoast Science Center, says that the number of seal strandings she has seen has nearly quadrupled from its usual rate.

The concern here goes beyond the fate of the lovable pinnipeds. If seal species are suddenly experiencing an abnormal depletion — as opposed to a form of natural population control — it could be a warning sign of other problems that might ultimately effect whole ecosystems.

The Seacoast Science Center, like Marine Mammals of Maine, has been sending samples to labs to try to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have also been investigating, and announced the first clues.

"We've gotten results back that are positive for either avian influenza or what we call ‘phocine distemper virus,’" says Jennifer Goebel, a spokesperson for NOAA.

Avian flu and distemper have been linked to past seal mortality events. Goebel says it's too early to tell whether the diseases are the primary cause of this year's spike in deaths and says that testing will continue.