Abstract
Harbour seals Phoca vitulina are mainly considered a temperate species, but the world's northernmost population resides year-round in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. In this study we document post-moulting at-sea movements of 30 individuals from this population using satellite relay data loggers deployed in the autumns of 2009 and 2010. All of the seals showed a strong preference for the west side of the archipelago, staying mainly in coastal areas ( 50%) but did occupy areas with substantial amounts of drifting ice (5 to 25%). Shallow water (<100 m) and steep bathymetric slopes were preferred to deep water or flat-bottom areas. Harbour seal distribution in Svalbard is largely restricted to coastal areas that are heavily influenced by Atlantic water brought northward in the West Spitsbergen Current; both the temperature and influx of this water type are predicted to increase in the future. It is thus likely that environmental conditions in Svalbard in the future will become more favourable for harbour seals.
Highlights
Harbour seals Phoca vitulina have one of the broadest distributions among the pinnipeds, ranging from temperate areas as far south as southern California and France to Arctic waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic (Bigg 1969, Thompson et al 1989, Bjørge et al 1995)
Available information from Iceland, Greenland and mainland Norway suggest that harbour seal populations are severely depleted compared to former times, which has been driven in part by overharvesting, but other environmental pressures are likely contributing to the downward trends (Hauksson 1992, Nilssen et al 2010, Rosing-Asvid 2010)
The CTD-SRDLs deployed on adult and juvenile harbour seals (N = 30) in this study provided data for periods ranging between 54 and 298 d, with an average individual data record of 200 ± 79 d (Table 1)
Summary
Harbour seals Phoca vitulina have one of the broadest distributions among the pinnipeds, ranging from temperate areas as far south as southern California and France to Arctic waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic (Bigg 1969, Thompson et al 1989, Bjørge et al 1995). This species was listed as ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN Red List in 2008; at that time the global population was estimated to be 350 000 to 500 000 individuals. Available information from Iceland, Greenland and mainland Norway suggest that harbour seal populations are severely depleted compared to former times, which has been driven in part by overharvesting, but other environmental pressures are likely contributing to the downward trends (Hauksson 1992, Nilssen et al 2010, Rosing-Asvid 2010)
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