STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• Subjects: Canada; Newfoundland; Harp Seal; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.6227; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao1998sehp-wn.pdf

and Kovacs 1988); however, in recent years, numbers of sightings and strandings have been increasing off the east coast of the United States from Maine to New Jersey (Katona et al. 1993; Stevick and Fernald 1998; B. Rubinstein pers. comm., New England Aquarium). These appearances usually occur in January-May, when the western North Atlantic stock of harp seals is at its southern most point of migration. The worlds ' harp seal population is divided into three separate stocks, each identified with a specific breeding site (Bonner 1990; Lavigne and Kovacs 1988). The largest stock is located in the western North Atlantic off eastern Canada and is divided into two breeding herds which breed on the pack ice. The Front herd breeds off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Gulf herd breeds near