Lithuania bids to save Baltic seals as ice sheets recede

The grey seals slided out of their cages into the Baltic Sea near the Lithuanian coast, swimming off to new lives imperiled by climate change, pollution and shrinking fish stocks. The seals have been nurtured at a rehabilitation centre in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda.

Survival rates for cubs in the wild can be as low as five percent, according to local scientists. The Baltic Sea, which is shared by the European Union and Russia, rarely freezes over now, depriving seals of sanctuaries to rear their cubs. Rearing cubs ashore also leaves them exposed to humans, other wild animals, rowdy males, as well as a higher risk of diseases, according to a biologist at the centre.