As the seasons change once again, we wanted to look back to earlier this year, when the WWF volunteers helped secure the future of the Saimaa ringed seal.
When Saimaa, the largest lake in Finland, experienced a lack of snow yet again last winter, the consequences could have been disastrous for the lake's famous population of seals.
The life of a Saimaa ringed seal depends on snow and ice, as it gives birth to its pups in a cave-like nest it builds out of snow.
Because of the lack of snow, volunteers working with WWF and Metsähallitus (Parks and Wildlife Finland) gave up their time during some of the coldest days in February to move the snow sitting atop the ice-covered-lake to build man-made snowbanks.
The life of every single pup matters, as the Saimaa ringed seal is extremely endangered.
This was not the case 100 years ago when the seal population in the Saimaa waters was nearly 1,000.
However, in the course of just one century, they were hunted close to extinction.By the 1980s, less than 120 seals survived.
The number of seals has increased steadily since 1979, when we established a seal conservation group. Nowadays, the population is over 360.
The man-made snowbanks seem to be working. 90% of this year's pups were born inside one. In fact, the total number of seal pups born was 82, which set a new record.
The lack of snow is not the only threat the Saimaa ringed seal has to face! One of the biggest threats to their survival is net fishing.
Drowning in fishing nets is the most common cause of death for seal pups. But recently there has been a change in attitudes: a change that is largely thanks to Pullervo, the world's most famous Saimaa ringed seal.
Pullervo has charmed all of Finland by spending hours lazing in front of the live camera we installed at Saimaa.
This year, the live stream was viewed over three million times.
The live stream aimed to make people more aware of the Saimaa ringed seal. When people know more about it, they may be more willing to give up net fishing.
The Saimaa ringed seal will still need protection for a long time to come.
If we don't tackle climate change, the seal will no longer have a suitable living environment.
We support the University of Eastern Finland in their research for these seals. In fact, this was where the idea to create the man-made snowbanks came from.
Now, the focus of the study is to find out what can be done if the snow cover at Saimaa is no longer thick enough for snowbanks or if the lake does not freeze over at all.
0 comments:
Post a Comment