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    Default Seals of Approval

    ‘Something’s pulling them here’: Thousands of seals surround Arctic drilling rig (VIDEO)

    RT
    Published time: 23 Jun, 2017 19:31
    Edited time: 23 Jun, 2017 19:51
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    © Sergey Dolya / YouTube

    An enormous herd of harp seals has occupied every free ice floe as far as the eye can see around Russia’s Prirazlomnaya offshore oil drilling rig located in the Pechora Sea, inside the Arctic Circle.

    “I’ve never seen anything like this. There are thousands of them!” says an astonished oil rig worker, who did not wish to identify himself, during a minute-long video that was sent to the Russian explorer and travel writer Sergey Dolya, who posted it on his blog.


    © Sergey Dolya / YouTube

    Harp seals migrate annually between their birthing and feeding grounds and the Arctic, where they spend the summer, often traveling in excess of 4,000 km in large colonies.

    But their appearance around the colossal platform – which is actively pumping oil and receiving docking tankers and oil ships – is a surprise, as the animals are thought to be put off by industrial vibrations and the noise and bustle of human activity.


    © Sergey Dolya / YouTube

    “The seals are very lazy and do not desire to move away from the path of the ship. There must be something attracting them here,” says the off-screen videographer in the undated footage. “This is the rig’s environment – with a herd of complimentary animals.”

    In the video, the animals, which can live for up to 35 years in the wild, are seen diving under the thinning ice, and into the water, in which they can spend as much as fifteen minutes hunting their prey before they need to surface.

    Captains of ships operating in the Arctic have protocols for avoiding seals, who can suffer not just impact death, but traumatic displacement if an icebreaker plows through their habitat. This is less of an issue with the stationary platform though, which boasts that it has had zero impact on the environment, with all pollutants and waste stored and ferried back to the mainland.

    Despite being subjected to some of the most high-profile protests conducted by Greenpeace, the platform has operated without any high-profile hitches since oil was first extracted in 2014, and is shutting down for three months this summer for a planned upgrade.

    The Prirazlomnaya platform, which cost the state-run Russian giant Gazprom more than $1 billion to build and install, is a landmark project in Arctic oil exploration, a stated priority for both company and country.
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    Default Re: Seals of Approval

    So neat, the seals are with Greenpeace, protesting it seems. Wouldn't it be great if animals started to protest altogether, all species.

    yes, something is happening
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    Default Re: Seals of Approval

    It may be that the rig offers protection and possibly habitat for some of what the seals consume.

    Otherwise the seals would be elsewhere.

    think of the racoon and fox situation on the given edges of most cities. Population explosions.

    Perhaps the seals have learned their version of the same.
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    Default Re: Seals of Approval

    It's like the reindeer lying down near the oil pipes for warmth, evidently! All forms of life seem to "adapt"....even us!!

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    Default Re: Seals of Approval

    I think the numbers that have gathered (presumably for the first time) is quite significant. Thanks for sharing, Hervé - this is an eye opener.

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    Default Re: Seals of Approval

    It's not a mystery. Typically when large groups of any species congregates in an area it means that there is an abundant food source in that area. Fish and crustaceans are a major part of a seal's diet.

    Fish and crustaceans don't spend a lot of time in open water. They congregate around some natural or man made structure.

    Bait fish hide around the structure and attract larger fish which in tern attract the seals.

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    Default Re: Seals of Approval

    Quote Posted by Carmody (here)
    It may be that the rig offers protection and possibly habitat for some of what the seals consume.

    Otherwise the seals would be elsewhere.

    think of the racoon and fox situation on the given edges of most cities. Population explosions.

    Perhaps the seals have learned their version of the same.
    A combination of greater food as mentioned above and... (more importantly in my mind) the human activity maybe scares the killer whales away? (cuz seal's are a mainstay of killer whale's diet)

    Either way, this is the opposite of a green peace protest... haha

    Seals of approval indeed.
    Last edited by TargeT; 24th June 2017 at 19:07.
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    Default Re: Seals of Approval

    Quote Posted by Hervé (here)
    [B]
    An enormous herd of harp seals has occupied every free ice floe as far as the eye can see around Russia’s Prirazlomnaya offshore oil drilling rig located in the Pechora Sea, inside the Arctic Circle.
    Are they calling them harp seal or HAARP seals (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_F...search_Program

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    Default Re: Seals of Approval

    Quote Posted by Foxie Loxie (here)
    It's like the reindeer lying down near the oil pipes for warmth, evidently! All forms of life seem to "adapt"....even us!!
    Can't blame them. It's cold there: -50+ degrees without wind chill.

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