SUMMARY

• Main Authors: Tore Haug, Kjell Tormod Nilssen
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Akureyri; Constable Pynt; Greenland; Cystophora cristata; East Greenland; Greenland Sea; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.615.2176; http://www.imr.no/english/__data/page/6303/No_10_Hooded_seal_pup_production_in_the_greenland_sea.pdf

Sea pack-ice (the West Ice), to asssess the pup production of the Greenland Sea population of hooded seals Cystophora cristata. Two fixed-wing twin-engined aircrafts (stationed in Constable Pynt, East-Greenland, and Akureyri, Iceland) were used for reconaissance flights and photographic surveys along transects over the whelping patches. A helicopter, operated from the applied expedition vessel (M/V”Polarsyssel”), assisted in the reconnaissance flights, and subsequently flew combined visual/video transect surveys over the whelping patches. The helicopter was also used for other purposes, such as monitoring the drift of ice and patches, age-stageing (also performed along transects over the patches) of the pups, and assessing the fidelity of pups to their natal ice pans. A total of 15 reconnaissance surveys were flown and the total area along the eastern ice edge between 67°25 ’ and 75°00’N were covered during the survey period. The reconnaissance surveys were usually flown at an altude of approximately 300 m. Repeated systematic east-west transects spacing10 nautical miles ( sometimes 5 nautical miles apart) were flown from the eastern ice edge and usually 10-20 nautical miles (sometimes longer) over the drift ice to the