"There's only so much ice out there and declines in the quantity and quality of it across the region, coupled with the earlier arrival of spring ice breakup, is literally leaving these populations on thin ice," said David W. Johnston of the Duke University Marine Lab, who led the study, published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.
"The kind of mortality we're seeing in Eastern Canada is dramatic. Entire year-classes may be disappearing from the population in low-ice years -- essentially all of the pups die. It calls into question the resilience of the population."
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