Feeding by grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland

Diet composition of grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Gulf) and around the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, was examined using identification of otoliths recovered from digestive tracts. Prey were recovered from 632 animals. Twenty-nine different prey taxa were identified. Grey seals sampled in...

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Published in:NAMMCO Scientific Publications
Main Authors: Hammill, M O, Stenson, G B, Proust, F, Carter, P, McKinnon, D
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/NAMMCOSP/article/view/2729
https://doi.org/10.7557/3.2729
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spelling ftunitroemsoe:oai:ojs.henry.ub.uit.no:article/2729 2023-05-15T15:27:20+02:00 Feeding by grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland Hammill, M O Stenson, G B Proust, F Carter, P McKinnon, D 2007-01-01 application/pdf https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/NAMMCOSP/article/view/2729 https://doi.org/10.7557/3.2729 eng eng Septentrio Academic Publishing https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/NAMMCOSP/article/view/2729/2578 https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/NAMMCOSP/article/view/2729 doi:10.7557/3.2729 Copyright (c) 2007 M O Hammill, G B Stenson, F Proust, P Carter, D McKinnon http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-BY NAMMCO Scientific Publications; Vol 6: Grey seals in the North Atlantic and the Baltic; 135-152 2309-2491 1560-2206 10.7557/3.6 grey seals diet Newfoundland Gulf of St Lawrence otoliths info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2007 ftunitroemsoe https://doi.org/10.7557/3.2729 https://doi.org/10.7557/3.6 2021-08-16T16:39:00Z Diet composition of grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Gulf) and around the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, was examined using identification of otoliths recovered from digestive tracts. Prey were recovered from 632 animals. Twenty-nine different prey taxa were identified. Grey seals sampled in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence fed mainly on capelin, mackerel, wolffish and lumpfish during the spring, but consumed more cod, sandlance and winter flounder during late summer. Overall, the southern Gulf diet was more diverse, with sandlance, Atlantic cod, cunner, white hake and Atlantic herring dominating the diet. Capelin and winter flounder were the dominant prey in grey seals sampled from the east coast of Newfoundland, while Atlantic cod, flatfish and capelin were the most important prey from the south coast. Animals consumed prey with an average length of 20.4 cm (Range 4.2-99.2 cm). Capelin were the shortest prey (Mean = 13.9 cm, SE = 0.08, N = 1126), while wolffish were the longest with the largest fish having an estimated length of 99.2 cm (Mean = 59.4, SE = 2.8, N = 63). In the early 1990s most cod fisheries in Atlantic Canada were closed because of the collapse of the stocks. Since then they have shown limited sign of recovery. Diet samples from the west coast of Newfoundland indicate a decline in the contribution of cod to the diet from the pre-collapse to the postcollapse period, while samples from the southern Gulf indicate little change in the contribution of cod. Article in Journal/Newspaper atlantic cod Newfoundland University of Tromsø: Septentrio Academic Publishing Canada Hake ENVELOPE(15.612,15.612,66.797,66.797) NAMMCO Scientific Publications 6 135
institution Open Polar
collection University of Tromsø: Septentrio Academic Publishing
op_collection_id ftunitroemsoe
language English
topic grey seals
diet
Newfoundland
Gulf of St Lawrence
otoliths
spellingShingle grey seals
diet
Newfoundland
Gulf of St Lawrence
otoliths
Hammill, M O
Stenson, G B
Proust, F
Carter, P
McKinnon, D
Feeding by grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland
topic_facet grey seals
diet
Newfoundland
Gulf of St Lawrence
otoliths
description Diet composition of grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Gulf) and around the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, was examined using identification of otoliths recovered from digestive tracts. Prey were recovered from 632 animals. Twenty-nine different prey taxa were identified. Grey seals sampled in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence fed mainly on capelin, mackerel, wolffish and lumpfish during the spring, but consumed more cod, sandlance and winter flounder during late summer. Overall, the southern Gulf diet was more diverse, with sandlance, Atlantic cod, cunner, white hake and Atlantic herring dominating the diet. Capelin and winter flounder were the dominant prey in grey seals sampled from the east coast of Newfoundland, while Atlantic cod, flatfish and capelin were the most important prey from the south coast. Animals consumed prey with an average length of 20.4 cm (Range 4.2-99.2 cm). Capelin were the shortest prey (Mean = 13.9 cm, SE = 0.08, N = 1126), while wolffish were the longest with the largest fish having an estimated length of 99.2 cm (Mean = 59.4, SE = 2.8, N = 63). In the early 1990s most cod fisheries in Atlantic Canada were closed because of the collapse of the stocks. Since then they have shown limited sign of recovery. Diet samples from the west coast of Newfoundland indicate a decline in the contribution of cod to the diet from the pre-collapse to the postcollapse period, while samples from the southern Gulf indicate little change in the contribution of cod.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Hammill, M O
Stenson, G B
Proust, F
Carter, P
McKinnon, D
author_facet Hammill, M O
Stenson, G B
Proust, F
Carter, P
McKinnon, D
author_sort Hammill, M O
title Feeding by grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland
title_short Feeding by grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland
title_full Feeding by grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland
title_fullStr Feeding by grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland
title_full_unstemmed Feeding by grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland
title_sort feeding by grey seals in the gulf of st. lawrence and around newfoundland
publisher Septentrio Academic Publishing
publishDate 2007
url https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/NAMMCOSP/article/view/2729
https://doi.org/10.7557/3.2729
long_lat ENVELOPE(15.612,15.612,66.797,66.797)
geographic Canada
Hake
geographic_facet Canada
Hake
genre atlantic cod
Newfoundland
genre_facet atlantic cod
Newfoundland
op_source NAMMCO Scientific Publications; Vol 6: Grey seals in the North Atlantic and the Baltic; 135-152
2309-2491
1560-2206
10.7557/3.6
op_relation https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/NAMMCOSP/article/view/2729/2578
https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/NAMMCOSP/article/view/2729
doi:10.7557/3.2729
op_rights Copyright (c) 2007 M O Hammill, G B Stenson, F Proust, P Carter, D McKinnon
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/10.7557/3.2729
https://doi.org/10.7557/3.6
container_title NAMMCO Scientific Publications
container_volume 6
container_start_page 135
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