By Emi Gruender
In Lake Saimaa of Finland, hundreds of volunteers spend hours shoveling snow banks in an effort to save the critically endangered Saimaa ringed seal. As a result of global warming, the maximum thickness of ice has decreased by 1.5 cm per decade, and the amount of snow that freezes upon Lake Saimaa has decreased dramatically as well. These endangered seals require snowbanks in order to create burrows and give birth to seal pups, and so their population has dwindled to just 500 seals, exclusively found in Lake Saimaa.
Finnish locals have taken it upon themselves to lend the seals a helping hand— and since this practice began in 2014, more than 300 pups have been born in these human-assisted snowdrifts. These snowdrifts, approximately 7 meters long and 1.5 meters high, tend to last longer than naturally occurring snowdrifts, which melt early in the season due to rising average temperatures. This allows the pups to fully exit their dependent stage where they still require the snowdrifts to survive before their homes are taken away by the exit of winter.
However, scientists have predicted that in the future, these snowbanks will continue to decrease in size— and the Saimaa seals will have little to no means to reproduce. In order to combat these problems, Finnish researchers have taken to creating artificial dens, or nest boxes, in case of snowless winters, where the temperature is not low enough to snow, or even freeze the surface of the lake. Despite these efforts, the Saimaa ringed seal is still incredibly endangered— with a population of just 495 individuals, which is likely to further decrease with the continued effects of global warming.
For the Saimaa ringed seal’s sake, volunteers have selflessly devoted hours upon hours of their winter labor— but with the unregulated continuation of environmentally harmful practices, these seals may not survive a coming generation.