Photo Gallery Seal Pups Missing after Big Storm
Last week's winter storm appears to have taken its toll on the German island of Helgoland, where nearly 50 seal pups have since been reported missing. Officials there say they probably didn't survive. Here, a file photo of a seal pup on sand banks off the island's shore, where seals typically give birth from November through December each year.
Waves off the shores of Helgoland in the North Sea on Dec. 7. Winter storm "Xaver" brought chilly, hurricane-force winds and highwater to the island off the northern German coast.
Helgoland's offshore beach dunes, once a part of the island, were damaged by the storm.
Some 50,000 cubic meters of sand were reportedly pulled into the sea by the waves.
"If these casualties are confirmed, it will be a real loss," the island's tourism director, Klaus Furtmeier, told SPIEGEL ONLINE on Tuesday, describing what he said was un unusual scene. The storm came at a bad time for the island's seal population (shown here in 2012), which is in the midst of birthing season.
