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Seals Of Sable

Sable Island, Nova Scotia, is a remote, almost mythical landscape in the northwest Atlantic that's famous for its wild horses. But what many people don't know is that it's also home to the largest breeding colony of grey seals in the world. Every winter, tens of thousands of female seals head to Sable to give birth. In 2016 alone, more than 80,000 pups were born. Huge males arrive too, ready to fight for the right to breed with their chosen female.

The winter pupping and breeding season also signals the arrival of the seal researchers, including a diverse team of scientists led by biologist Nell den Heyer from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). It's a race against the clock for the researchers; they only have a short time to find and record data from roughly a thousand marked seals along with their pups. They've followed many of these animals for more than 30 years.

Once hunted to near extinction, the grey seal population is thriving today. Grey seals have few predators and don't depend on a single type of prey, eating an extremely wide variety of fish, crustaceans and even octopuses. Some commercial fishermen blame grey seals for the slow recovery of groundfish stocks, but scientists still don't fully understand how the seals forage or what impact they're having on fish stocks.

Marine biologist Damian Lidgard has been photographing and observing seals on Sable Island for more than 20 years. He specializes in deploying satellite and acoustic devices, and his goal is to use underwater cameras to record the seals deep in the ocean foraging for food. "Grey seals spend most of their lives at sea, only coming to land to rest, moult and give birth," says Lidgard. "There are so many unanswered questions about them and their world."

Though we see Lidgard and the DFO team unsuccessfully deploy a camera on a grey seal, they're willing to give it another try. We watch the researchers attach newly designed cameras to two female seals, Kate and Fiona. The cameras need to be as tough as the seals to endure six weeks at sea and constant changes in pressure.

As Lidgard and the team wait for the seals to return, we get an intimate look at the life of the grey seal. We experience the birth of pups and witness the large, aggressive males battling for access to females. It becomes clear why Sable Island is considered one of the most compelling natural laboratories on Earth.

MORE:Nova Scotian marine biologist follows the life and habits of the grey seals of Sable IslandSable Island: The perfect home for grey seals

We can see what the seals do on land, but what they do at sea is still a mystery. That is, until Kate and Fiona return to the island with their cameras in tow. Lidgard and the researchers now get to see grey seals foraging in the dark depths of the Atlantic, but what they're doing isn't quite what the team expected. Instead of chasing after schools of fish, the seals are captured digging their noses along the ocean floor, eating small, eel-like fish called sand lance.

The seals of Sable Island have become an important extension of our understanding of Canada's East Coast marine ecology — and we're only just beginning to explore their watery world. 

Credits

Directed and Produced by

Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason

Documentary Script Written by

Teresa MacInnes

Narration Written by

Erna Buffie

Wildlife Consultant

Caroline Underwood

Director of Photography

Kent Nason, csc

Cinematography and Drone Footage by

Darren West

Location Sound by

Teresa MacInnes

Additional Cinematography and Photography

Damian Lidgard

Edited by

Sarah Bryne

Online Editor/Colourist

Doug Woods

Motion Graphics and

Assistant Online Editor

Robert Carrigan

Closed Captions and Described Video

Carter Thurber

Sound Edit and Design

Jamie Alcorn and Nance Ackerman

Original Music by

Jamie Alcorn and Nance Ackerman

Re Recording Mixer

Matt Dawson, MPSE

Audio Pre-mixer

Graham Colwell

Legal

Robert Aske

Insurance Agent

Paul Lipkus

Production Bookkepper

Lorne Armstrong

Production Accountant

Patricia Dyson

Interim Financing

RBC, Dan Spry

Production Manager

Damian Lidgard

Underwater Cinematography

Steve De Neef

Chris Harvey Clark

Nick Hawkins

Steven Melanson

Stock Footage

FramePool

Images

MODIS Rapid Response

NASA

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO

Parks Canada

Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Developed with the participation of

Canada Media Fund

For the CBC

General Manager, Programming, Sally Catto

Executive Director, Unscripted Content, Jennifer Dettman

Senior Director, Documentary, Sandra Kleinfeld

Senior Director of Production, Unscripted Content Alexandra Lane

Executive in Charge of Production Sue Dando

The Nature of Things with David Suzuki

Produced by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

cbc.Ca/natureofthings

Produced by

Executive Producer

Teresa MacInnes

www.Seatosea.Cc

Filmed on location with the permission of

Sable Island National Park Reserve, Nova Scotia, Canada

© MMXIX Sea to Sea Productions Ltd.

SAVING THE CAPE SABLE SEASIDE SPARROW

The Cape Sable seaside sparrow isn't nicknamed the "Goldilocks bird" for nothing: In order for this little sparrow to survive, its habitat conditions have to be just right. Though the bird has evolved to live in harmony with periodic fires and flooding, fires must be timed perfectly or else they'll threaten reproduction, and water levels must always be at an ideal level — or male birds will stop singing. Unfortunately, this sparrow's habitat in south Florida's Everglades system has been the target of drastic water-level manipulation that has been devastating to the bird's population, and strong storms — like Hurricane Andrew in 1992 — have posed further serious setbacks, in addition to development, pollution, and other threats.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recognized this bird as endangered since 1967, designating more than 190,000 acres of much-needed federally protected habitat 10 years later. Although this designation included a large area, scientists quickly realized that it didn't include the right areas and called for a new designation in the species' recovery plan. After the Service failed to take action, the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, since incorporated by the Center, petitioned and sued to have the designation updated. Unfortunately this update fell to the Bush administration, which slashed critical habitat to a mere 84,000 acres, leaving out more than 70,000 acres that had been identified as essential by the agency's own scientists. To fight this political interference, in 2009 the Center filed suit against the Service to regain 70,000 acres of protected habitat. We're also making sure protected habitat is suitable for the bird, filing suit in 2015 over continued flooding of its home in the Everglades National Park.

In a 2018 Center analysis, we found that under the Trump administration the Service failed to make protection and critical-habitat decisions for 78 species, including the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, covered under a seven-year workplan developed by the agency in 2016.

Sable Island: The Perfect Home For Grey Seals

Sable Island, one of Canada's farthest offshore islands, is an isolated and rugged place. But for the world's biggest breeding colony of grey seals, it's the ideal winter home. In 1960, there were only about 8,000 grey seals in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Now, more than 400,000 seals come to Sable's beaches during the winter months to pup and breed.

Seals of Sable, a documentary from The Nature of Things, follows seal experts Damian Lidgard and Nell den Heyer as they study the marine mammals all along the windswept island. They have their theories as to why the island has become a grey seal utopia.

Location, location, location

Part of what makes Sable Island such a fantastic spot for grey seals is that it's located close to good feeding grounds. "These animals don't need to travel that far to access food," says Lidgard.

It's also got plenty of space for the seals. The remote island is a 42 kilometre–long sandbar in the middle of the ocean with wide beaches stretching along its length, giving the seals plenty of space to "haul out," or come ashore to moult, rest, pup and breed.

Free from predators

There are no land-based predators on Sable Island, so after the seals dodge sharks lurking in the water, they find safety on its shores.

For grey seal colonies in other regions, this isn't always the case. "There can be issues with predators, whether they be land-based predators or birds of prey," says den Heyer.

Opportunistic eating

While many fish communities in the Sable Island region have seen major population crashes, the grey seals are still flourishing. According to Lidgard, this is partially due to their eating habits.

"Grey seals are very much an opportunistic feeder in that they're going to go feed on species which are most abundant, and that is one of the reasons why they are doing so well," he explains.

In Seals of Sable, Lidgard attaches a camera to a few grey seals in order to see, for the first time, what they actually eat. The camera was able to record the seals as they dove deep down to hunt for a type of groundfish called sand lance, which spend most of their time buried in the sand of the seabed.

WATCH: Researchers are learning more and more about the diet and hunting habits of grey seals.

A life undisturbed

The isolation of the island, located 290 kilometres offshore from Halifax, might be the ultimate draw for grey seals. Sable Island has very few human visitors, so the seals have the beaches to themselves.

From the '60s up until the early '80s, Canada had organized culling and bounties, strategies to hunt down and reduce certain seal populations, notes den Heyer.

MORE:Nova Scotian marine biologist follows the life and habits of the grey seals of Sable Island

There were a few reasons why reducing seal numbers was deemed necessary at the time: it was believed the seals were depleting commercial fish stocks, damaging fishing gear and spreading nematode parasites.

Aside from small harvests, Canada has not culled the grey seal population over the last few decades, and the population has grown at its maximum rate. For animals that bear one offspring per year and can live for more than 30 years, these seals are reproducing as fast as nature will allow.

Watch Seals of Sable on The Nature of Things.

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