GRAY SEAL (Halichoerus grypus): Western North Atlantic Stock

• Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: animals has been documented on outer Cape Cod and Nantucket Island (Dennis Murley; pers. comm; Mass. Audubon; Canada; Nantucket; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.5499; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao2000segr-wn.pdf

The gray seal is found on both sides of the North Atlantic, with three major populations: in eastern Canada; northwestern Europe and the Baltic Sea (Katona et al. 1993). The western North A tlantic population occurs from New England to Labrador and is centered in the Sable Island region of Nova Scotia (Katona et al. 1993; D avies 195 7). This stock is separated by both geography and differences in the breeding season from the eastern Atlantic stock (Bonner 1981). The western North Atlantic stock is distributed and breeds principally in eastern Canadian waters (Man sfield 1966). There are two breeding concentrations in eastern Canada; one at Sable Island, and a second that breeds on the pack ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Hamm ill et al. 1998). Tagging studies indicate that there is little intermixing between the two breeding groups (Zwanenberg and Bowen 1990), and for management purposes, they are treated as separate populations (Mohn and Bowen 1996). However, small numbers of animals and pupping have been observed on several isolated islands along