75% of North Europe’s Seals Died, Expert Says
About 75% of the common seal population off the Dutch, Danish and West German coasts has died in the past six months after contracting a canine distemper virus, a Dutch expert said Wednesday.
Lenie ‘t Hart, director of a nursery for seals in the village of Pieterburen, said that the epidemic had run its course in West Germany and Denmark and is fading in the Netherlands but is still sweeping the coasts of England and Ireland.
The distemper virus has killed at least 17,000 seals in northern Europe this year--8,000 in the Wadden Sea bordered by the Netherlands, West Germany and Denmark, 6,000 in the Baltic Sea and at least 3,000 along the English and Irish coasts.
There are now only about 250 common seals off the Dutch coast, compared to 1,000 a year ago, she said.
She said it would take 10 to 14 years for the common seal population to replenish itself.
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