Cross your fingers - this could be the break we've been waiting for to control the seal population:

Baby seals are washing up dead on New England's coast - latimes.com (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/baby-seals-are-dying-in-droves-on-new-englands-coast.html)

DZ

Unfortunately, most of the dead seals I've seen in the last few months have all been harbor seals and not the evil horsehead. The article points that out too -

There was a huge sewage plant spill up north a month or 2 ago.. I wonder if its related. There were hundreds of thousands of small plastic containers that are used in the plant to hold chemicals or enzymes that floated all over new england.

so many variables... Im glad those dead seals were not shot..

that was actually back in March.......but they are still kicking around

Still a small % compared to whats been around lately

One possibility was pneumonia which could spread to other types of seals. Sometimes these natural processes start slow. We can only hope. I always thought our only chance at seal population control was some natural occuring disease. Natures way.

DZ

that was actually back in March.......but they are still kicking around

Every time I cleared debris from between the boat and the dock.... several of those "mostly recovered" discs floated out...

Saw loads of those "recovered" discs on the vinyard too...Let's just pray that whatever it is ...it doesn't start affecting other marine life

shared my encounter on another thread, but the seal I had a close encounter with two weeks ago was coughing loudly and hanging in an area that I've never seen a seal before. Pneumonia would make a lot of sense.

Buzz should brew a virus that takes out seals

Buzz should brew a virus that takes out seals

it already exists

dog distemper

how's it transmitted?

Canine Distemper

Canine distemper is caused by a virus that has a broad host range among North American carnivores including the mink, striped skunks, fishers, badgers, black-footed ferrets and weasels. Canine distemper virus is related to rubeola (red measles) but poses no known threat to humans.

Canine distemper virus infects cells of the immune system, lungs, gastrointestinal and urinary tracts, skin, and brain. It is shed from the body in nasal and conjunctival exudates, feces and urine. Transmission requires close interaction between animals to enable direct contact or aerosol exposure because the virus does not persist long outside the body under most environmental conditions. Infected animals may shed virus beginning about 5 days after infection for a period of as long as 6 weeks or until death.

The signs of canine distemper are similar in all susceptible species. Reddening on the skin of the chin, muzzle, ears, around the eyes, ventral abdomen, limbs and footpads is an early sign. Scurfiness, or a moist rash with thickening of the skin and slippage of fur, may develop in these areas. The muzzle and footpads may become thickened and dry. There may be an ocular discharge and the eyes may become encrusted and gummed shut by purulent exudates. Some animals lose their appetite and become emaciated, whereas others develop diarrhea. Pneumonia may develop, resulting in labored respirations. Nervous signs, which are due to encephalitis, include loss of fear of humans, daylight wandering by nocturnal animals, stupor, circling, twitching or spasms of limbs, muscles, muzzle, lips and head, ataxia, paralysis, coma and convulsions.

Outbreaks of canine distemper may have a significant impact on local or regional populations of raccoons, and on red foxes, gray foxes and skunks in parts of the United States and on the raccoon population in Canada. Transmission of canine distemper is likely density-dependent; the disease poses a threat mainly to concentrated populations of previously unexposed susceptible species.

The origin of virus introduced into susceptible populations is unclear, there often appears to be little relationship between canine distemper activity in domestic populations and that in wildlife.

sounds great, We just need several thousand CC's to inject in some members of a local congregation

There is already a seal distemper spreading through the populations:

In 1988, harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) died in large numbers off the coast of northern Europe (1). A virus was first isolated in April 1988, when widespread abortions and deaths among harbor seals were reported in the Kattegat area between Denmark and Sweden. The infection spread to the North, Wadden, and Baltic seas, killing 17,000–20,000 seals in northwestern Europe in 8 months. The virus subsequently was classified as a species of the genus Morbillivirus (family Paramyxoviridae) (2,3), Phocine distemper virus (PDV). The virus is believed to have originated in harp seals in which the infection is enzootic (4). Migrations of harp seals into the North Sea may have initiated the epizootic in harbor seals. Gray seals in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean also were infected, but disease was not as severe as in harbor seals (5).

A more recent outbreak occurred in Europe in 2002 (6). An estimated 30,000 harbor and gray seals died during this epizootic (7,8). The origin of this second epizootic 14 years after the first remains unknown. PDV may have jumped species into terrestrial carnivores, particularly mink, and reinfected seals (9), but this hypothesis remains unproven. Phylogenetic analysis of the hemagglutin (H) genes of PDV, together with those of other morbilliviruses, suggests that the reemergent 2002 PDV is more closely related to a putative recent ancestral PDV than to the 1988 isolates (10). Millions of seals of various species inhabit the waters surrounding North America; populations of most species are believed to be stable or increasing, and no epizootics on the scale of those reported in Europe have been reported. PDV disease in the United States was first reported in harbor seals on the east coast during the winter of 1991–92 (11), and serologic testing of gray and harbor seals suggested that a PDV-like strain or strains were circulating enzootically in the region (12). This circulation was attributed to an increased number of harbor seals (mainly immature animals) overwintering in southern New England (13). During the spring of 2006, deaths among seals (harbor, gray, and hooded) also increased along the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts. This increase was considered an unusual mortality event. Both dead and sick seals appeared nonemaciated. Live-stranded seals were weak and had generalized body tremors and spasms. Affected seals were taken to the Marine Science Education and Research Center (University of New England, Biddeford, ME, USA); investigations indicated that the pathologic changes were consistent with morbillivirus infection. Recent advances in virus isolation and genetic sequencing methods have provided us with better insight into PDV epizootiology in Europe and in North America.

Phocine Distemper Virus in Seals, East Coast, United States, 2006 - Vol. 17 No. 2 - February 2011 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/2/10-0190_article.htm)

Thought I read it could be transmitted by close contact... If so maybe whip up some flea foggers with the stuff then just drop them on the beach in the middle of the herd.
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yeah those lovely white "recovered" discs were all over the falmouth beaches this summer.

Probaly not legal but has anyone ever tried fireworks to try and get them to vacate an area? Kind of like farmers using those automatic gun shot machines to keep geese from landing in their corn fields.

DZ

the feelgooders will figure out a way to dispense vaccine to slow the distemper, much the way they have with the "baits" they put in the woods for the skunks, racoons, coyotes, etc. for rabies and distemper. the baits they put in the woods have some kind of fish in them, because they sure so stink that way! Real Glad they put a notice in the local paper before they do it, so I can pay attention while walking the dog in the state park.

There are similar observations starting to emerge from places in scandinavia/russia etc.