AR-News: (US NH) Federal investigation continues into recent seal deaths

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

PORTSMOUTH - Special agents with the Office for Law Enforcement of the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration continue to investigate the deaths 
of four seals in New England confirmed to be caused by human interaction and 
showing signs of poaching for body parts. 
A reward of $11,400 for the arrest and conviction of those responsible has 
been offered by private organizations in New England. 
"Harming a seal is a violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act," 
said Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Andy Cohen, of the office’s Northeast 
Division. "It is also illegal to remove parts from a seal, dead or alive, or trade 
those parts unless you have a specifically granted right to do so." 
Since July 2003, NOAA special agents have spotted, photographed and taken 
reports of a number of dead seals found along the New England coast, most of 
which likely died of natural causes. Four seal carcasses were confirmed to have 
human-caused wounds, such as skinning and decapitation and other missing body 
parts. These include two recovered at Hampton Beach last summer and two 
recovered in Plymouth, Mass., in January and February. 
A fifth seal, found headless in Wells, Maine, is being investigated as a 
suspicious death, although a necropsy was never performed due to the high level of 
decomposition of the carcass. 





full story:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/03082004/news/4160.htm 
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