‘There's no ice’: warming seas chill Quebec’s seal tourism

For the fifth time since 2010, a lack of ice means no visitors and an unstable future for the ice-dependent harp seal

There's no season this year. There's no ice," says Ariane Berube, sales director for the Chateau Madelinot hotel on Quebec's Magdalen Islands (also known as the Iles de la Madeleine).

It's not the first time the seal pup observation season has been cancelled - since 2010 there have been five winters with insufficient ice in the Gulf of St Lawrence due to unseasonably warm temperatures.