Counting Harp Seals with ultra-violet photography

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Lavigne, D. M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1976
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Arctic; Svalbard; Hudson Bay; White Sea; Canada; Greenland; Hudson; Jan Mayen; Magdalen; Canadian Archipelago; Harp Seal; ice pack; North Atlantic; Pagophilus groenlandicus; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400000310; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400000310

The Harp Seal Pagophilus groenlandicus is a gregarious, migratory seal inhabiting Arctic and sub-Arctic waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. In spring, asthe ice recedes, the largest of three known breeding populations migrates up the east coas of Canada from the Gulf of St Lawrence, along the coast of Labrador, to the Canadian Archipelago, Hudson Bay, and the west coast of Greenland. After spending the summer feeding in Arctic waters, the seals move southward ahead of the Arctic ice pack, reaching the coast of Labrador and the Gulf of St Lawrence sometime in late December or early January. They reappear at the end of February and in early March in whelping ‘patches’ or concentrations on ice inthe Gulf of St Lawrence west of the Magdalen Islands, and off the coast of Labrador in an areaknown as the ‘Front’. One of the two smaller and probably distinct breeding populations is to be found in the White Sea, the other in the Vestisen [West Ice] between Jan Mayen and Svalbard.