- NEW YORK -- A series of mysterious
attacks on seals is being investigated by marine scientists on the New
England coast. Ten of the protected sea mammals have turned up mutilated
in as many months, some of them decapitated, skinned or with their genitals
missing.
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- "Someone out there knows what is happening,"
said Andy Cohen, who is in charge of enforcing a 1972 law protecting seals.
"We are looking at these as individual separate incidents but also
as a whole. We use forensics. Do the seals have the same tool marks, are
they skinned by the same knife?"
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- Various explanations have been offered as public concern
has grown. Among them is a theory that hunters are capturing the mammals
either for their skins or for their penises, which are popular in some
Asian countries as an aphrodisiac.
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- Until four decades ago, Massachusetts offered a bounty
to fishermen who killed seals and turned in their snouts. The bounty system
arose because of the belief that seals were emptying the ocean of fish.
However, there is no evidence that the fishermen, who face tough new restrictions
on catches, are responsible this time.
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- Since the introduction of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection
Act, the seal population off the New England coast has soared. There are
an estimated 100,000 harbour seals today, compared with 5,500 in 1972,
and they have become a popular tourist attraction each summer. Grey seals
that numbered 20 in 1982 now have a population of about 7,000.
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- Local officials have been bombarded with sightings of
dead seals. Most, however, are likely to have died from natural causes.
"Dead seals are a common event," said Tony LaCasse of the New
England Aquarium in Boston.
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- Of the 10 mutilated seals so far discovered, four were
skinned and had their genitals removed. One other male had its genitals
missing, and four seals were decapitated. Another seal was shot but survived.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=502749
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