What we're seeing is a natural filling in of what was once the grey seal range.
What we've seen in the last 50 years was that the population was largely 70% in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 30% on the Scotian Shelf. Because the seals were breeding on the ice, this is an area that was not accessible to any hunting.
Since then there has been the causeway. Also Sable Island has been protected, so what few pups you had there have been allowed to increase. They were always there. Many years ago in the 1700s they were there, so now they've just built up. Now roughly 80% of the population is born on Sable Island and 20% in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In recent times, we've been seeing a shift. As far as the longer-term distribution of seals is concerned, they're probably just filling in what was once a normal range.