Review Of Criteria For Index Sites For Monitoring Seal Abundance And Trends: Application To Southern New England ...

No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.New England populations of harbour seal and grey seal have increased and expanded their range since passage of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, (1972). In autumn there is an influx of harbour seals from Maine and the Canadian M...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Waring, Gordon T., Digiovanni, Rob, Ferland, Amy, Wood, Stephanie
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: ASC 2005 - R - Theme session 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25350544
https://ices-library.figshare.com/articles/conference_contribution/Review_Of_Criteria_For_Index_Sites_For_Monitoring_Seal_Abundance_And_Trends_Application_To_Southern_New_England/25350544
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Summary:No abstracts are to be cited without prior reference to the author.New England populations of harbour seal and grey seal have increased and expanded their range since passage of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, (1972). In autumn there is an influx of harbour seals from Maine and the Canadian Maritimes into southern New England,(SNE; Massachusetts to western Long Island, New York), that generally departs the region by mid-May. Grey seal numbers increase during the autumn as well and peak during the winter breeding season (January/February) and then decrease by late May. Intermittent autumn to spring monitoring surveys have been conducted in SNE since winter 1998/1999. However, the high cost of aerial surveys has made it difficult to maintain coast-wide seal monitoring surveys in SNE. Therefore, we have evaluated criteria used in other regions to monitor seals to determine their applicability and practicality to SNE. Criteria considered include: operational (i.e., survey design); ecological (i.e., life ...