Seals

Video: Rescued seal pups need coaxing back into the wild

Two harbor seal orphans rehabilitated for three months at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward were returned to the ocean last week near Juneau. One of the seals was found in May on a Haines beach , and the other was rescued in Juneau. (Video via KTOO)

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Archive by category ''Seals

SEALS

Atlantic seal deaths linked to avian flu; Alaska deaths said unrelated

A new strain of avian flu that jumped into the seal population caused the deaths of more than 100 harbor seals along the New England coast last fall, a study says. Scientists looking into seal deaths off Alaska say those weren't caused by bird flu.
ALASKA NEWSREADER

Video: Wayward Arctic seal hauls out in British Columbia

The roaming ribbon seal that's been showing up on docks in the Puget Sound region since winter recently flopped onto a dock in Squamish, British Columbia, north of Vancouver. Though he's thousands of miles from his normal Arctic range, he still appears to be mostly healthy, but biologists are ...
SEALS

Wildlife group plans to sue feds over missed deadline on seals

A conservation organization is giving formal notice it will sue the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing so far to decide whether two ice-dependent northern seals will be listed as threatened because of climate change.
SEALS

Orphaned newborn seal proves too hard to resist

Tracy Mikowski holds a degree in wildlife biology and knows animals found in the wild should be left there. But when Mikowski came across a newborn seal in beach grass along Chilkat Inlet recently, she scooped it up.
ALASKA NEWSREADER

Who can resist saving an orphaned newborn seal?

Not even Haines' dogcatcher, who has a degree in wildlife biology and admits she knows better, reports the Chilkat Valley News (subscription required). The seal, with umbilical still attached, was lying in beach grass surrounded by dogs, crows and eagles, all apparently waiting for the chance ...
SEALS

US, Russia to begin count of Bering Sea seal population

A team of researchers will begin flights over Bering Sea ice to answer a basic question about four of the region's most important species: How many ice-dependent seals are out there?
SEALS

US, Russia launch Bering Sea seal survey

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says U.S. and Russia researchers will begin the largest-ever survey of ice seals in the Bering Sea off Alaska's west coast.
SEALS

Sick seal near Yakutat shows possible spread of disease

Federal scientists said Wednesday that a nearly bald, lethargic seal recovered from the southeast Alaska coast showed the same symptoms of a disease that sickened ringed seals and Pacific walrus on the state's north coast last year.
SEALS

Sick Southeast Alaska seal indicates disease is spreading

Federal wildlife officials say a sick ringed seal that was captured in Southeast Alaska last week appears to be afflicted by the same symptoms suffered last year by ringed seals and Pacific walrus along northern coastlines.
CRIME

Ketchikan man fined for selling seal skin

An Alaska Native man from Ketchikan will serve five years' probation for illegally selling a seal skin.