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The Vancouver Aquarium released 10 rescued and rehabilitated harbour seals on Wednesday near Deep Cove. The seals – which had become stranded when they were pups – are just a fraction of the more than 80 seals that are cared for at the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre in Vancouver. Although newborn harbour seals are the most common patients at the rescue centre – which is run by the aquarium – the centre has cared for elephant seals, sea otters, porpoises, sea turtles and killer whales. This year they have rescued 145 seals. While preparing to release the months-old seals, Dr. Martin Haulena, the staff veterinarian at the aquarium, juicy couture outlet told media that this was when all the hard-work done by staff finally pays off. "Releasing these guys is fun and going through that process of taking really, really sick, injured marine animals through that process is certainly a feel-good operation," said Haulena. Before releasing the seals, the staff has to ensure that the seals have gained enough weight, are able to actively forage and can compete against other seals, said Haulena, adding that the rehabilitation process provides valuable insight into the lives of the seals and other marine mammal issues. Those clouds include a potential default by Greece, growing worries about the outlook for Portugal, Spain and Italy, and continuingpolitical gridlock in the U.S. over how to address its huge budget deficit and tepid growth rate. “The worst fear of course is that Greece will default. You can’t sugar-coat that because the euro banks will take it on the chin, and this strikes fears of a repeat of what we had three years ago with (the bankruptcy of) Lehman Brothers and the big bank bailouts,” he says. “So here we are in 2011 and we haven’t learned a thing, and the likelihood of some of the big euro banks failing is triggering cries for more bailouts. And of course the bailouts only pile debt upon more debt.” In Ing’s view, the stock market pullback that began a few months shows that “the world has reached a debt ceiling, and the markets won’t abide adding on more debt.” If so, that will put western governments in an increasingly tight spot, as growth falters and the ability of central banks to spur activity shrinks. Can anyone spell global debt restructuring? Looks to me as if that’s where we’re headed, sooner or later.
