Hundreds of grey seal pups nursing on Pictou Island, N.S. were killed Wednesday when a tidal surge washed them out to sea.

Newborn pups are unable to swim and despite their mothers' desperate attempts to retrieve them from the water, most were lost to the storm surge -- a by-product of the extreme winter weather currently pounding the Maritimes.

"You'd see mothers trying to save pups, they'd get them further inland and then the tide would take them back out," said Ron MacDonald, one of the island's 18 winter residents.

Fisheries Department officials said approximately 3,000 adult grey seals sought refuge on the island over the weekend, and it's estimated approximately 75 per cent of their pups were lost during the surge.

Strewn between washed-up strands of seaweed, the carcasses of some of the pups now litter the otherwise picturesque sandy beach, located between the southern tip of P.E.I. and the north coast of Nova Scotia.

"It was very traumatic to watch," said resident Jan MacDonald. "I can't say there was one nice thing about it."

A lack of ice floats in the Northumberland Strait forced the large herd to seek refuge on the island over the weekend.

Fisheries Department spokesperson Jerry Conway said the heavy loss will have a dramatic impact on the herd, but is unlikely to affect the overall population of the species in the area.

The surviving pups and their mothers are expected to stay on the island for another two to three weeks while they shed their white fur and deplete their fat reserves, before heading out to forage in the Atlantic waters.

With files from Dan MacIntosh of CTV Atlantic News