NPR

Gray Seals, Once Hunted, Are Thriving In New England

Massachusetts once offered a bounty for grey seals. After conservation efforts, the New England population bounced back, and Google Earth images show more seals than scientists had previously counted.
Snow and ice cover can camouflage seals, making it more difficult for scientists to estimate the animals' populations with accuracy.

The gray seal population in New England has bounced back, and new data points to how well seal numbers are doing.

Gray seal numbers had been decimated for more than a century when the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972. The animals were hunted in New, Massachusetts even paid a bounty of $5 each.

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