Seal herds taking refuge from warm temperatures decimated by blizzard.

OTTAWA (AFP) - Several herds of grey seals were nearly wiped out by a freak blizzard after coming ashore in eastern Canada to escape an unusually mild winter and deliver their offspring this week, officials told AFP.


The seals, which usually give birth on icebergs floating in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, came ashore on Canada's Atlantic coast because warmer than usual weather had melted the ice, fisheries officials said.

But they received a cool welcome.

Some 2,000 to 3,000 seals on tiny Pictou Island were struck by a "severe" storm that buried Canada's eastern Maritimes region in snow and kicked up high waves and strong winds Wednesday and Thursday.

Island resident Jane MacDonald told AFP by telephone that she awoke Thursday morning to see "wall to wall seals" and their puppies on four kilometers (2.5 miles) of beaches "decimated" by the storm...