A Marine Biologist Snuggleing With Baby Harp Seals
An developed harp seal and pup on water ice - Photo: NOAA Fisheries
An developed harp seal and pup on ice - Photo: NOAA Fisheries
About the Species
Harp seals live throughout the cold waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Three populations in the Barents Sea, East Coast of Greenland, and Northwest Atlantic Ocean are recognized based on geographic distribution also as morphological, genetic, and behavioral differences. These seals are named after the black patch on their back, which looks similar a harp.
Harp seals gather in large groups of up to several thousand to molt and breed. Although they alive in common cold h2o, harp seal pups are built-in without whatsoever protective fatty. Newborns speedily develop a thick layer of blubber while nursing.
Harp seals, like all marine mammals, are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Human activity. NOAA Fisheries is committed to conserving and protecting harp seals. Our scientists and partners use a multifariousness of innovative techniques to study, learn more about, and protect this species.
Population Condition
To manage harp seals in U.Due south. waters, we have grouped them into western Northward Atlantic stock. Based on the most recent survey, our scientists estimate that there are about 7 million seals in this stock.
Larn more virtually our estimates for population size in our stock assessment reports
Protected Status
MMPA Protected
- Throughout Its Range
Appearance
Harp seals are part of the truthful seal family. All truthful seals take brusk flippers, which they utilise to move in a caterpillar-like motion on land. They practice not have external ear flaps.
Harp seals are about 5 to 6 feet long, counterbalance virtually 260 to 300 pounds, and accept a robust body with a small, flat head. They accept a narrow snout and eight pairs of teeth in both the upper and lower jaws. Their front flippers have thick, stiff claws, while their back flippers have smaller, narrower claws.
Adult harp seals have low-cal gray fur with a black mask on their face up and a curved blackness patch on their back. This black patch looks like a harp and is the source of the species' common proper name. Some animals have dark spots randomly scattered over their unabridged trunk. Adults molt, or shed, their fur every spring.
Harp seal pups have long, wooly, white fur known as lanugo that lasts until almost 3 to 4 weeks one-time. This white fur helps absorb sunlight and trap estrus to proceed the pups warm. Pups molt several times during their development.
Behavior and Diet
Harp seals gather on pack ice in large groups during breeding and molting seasons. These groups can contain up to several chiliad seals. Harp seals also feed and travel in large groups during seasonal migrations. They often travel away from the pack water ice during the summertime and follow the ice north to feed in the Chill. Annual migrations tin be more than 3,100 miles roundtrip.
Harp seals can swoop up to one,300 feet below the surface and remain underwater for virtually 16 minutes. They eat many (more than than 130 species) different types of fish and invertebrates. Some seals have been found with more than than 65 species of fish and 70 species of invertebrates in their stomachs. Their most mutual type of casualty is smaller fish such as capelin, Arctic cod, and polar cod.
Lifespan & Reproduction
The maximum lifespan of a harp seal is approximately 30 years. Males are sexually mature at vii to 8 years of historic period and females at four to 7 years of age. Females requite birth from late February through mid-March. They will only give birth during the brusque catamenia of time when pack ice is available, every bit the ice provides a place to nurse their pups.
At nativity, newborn harp seals weigh most 25 pounds and are about iii anxiety long. They nurse on high-fat milk for about 12 days. During this time, they proceeds about five pounds per 24-hour interval and develop a thick blubber layer. Harp seals wean when they attain around lxxx pounds.
Afterward weaning, adult females leave their pups on the pack water ice. The pups stay on the ice without eating for about six weeks. They tin lose up to half of their body weight before they enter the water and beginning feeding on their ain.
Threats
Hunting
Commercial hunters have captured harp seals in Canada for meat and oil since the 1600s. The Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans sets an annual total allowable catch for commercial, aboriginal, and personal use hunting. Hunting also occurred in Greenland.
Vessel Strikes
Inadvertent vessel strikes can hurt or impale harp seals. Harp seals are vulnerable to vessel collisions throughout their range, only the take chances is much college in some littoral areas with heavy ship traffic.
Entanglement
Harp seals can become entangled in line-fishing gear and other types of marine debris, either swimming off with the gear attached or becoming anchored. They can become entangled in many different gear types, including gillnets, trawls, bag seines, or weirs. Once entangled, seals may drown if they cannot reach the surface to exhale, or they may drag and swim with attached gear for long distances, ultimately resulting in fatigue, compromised feeding ability, or severe injury, which may lead to reduced reproductive success and expiry.
Chemical Contaminants
Contaminants enter ocean waters from many sources, including oil and gas evolution, wastewater discharges, urban runoff, and other industrial processes. Once in the environment, these substances movement up the food concatenation and accumulate in predators about the top, such as harp seals. Considering of their blubber stores, harp seals accumulate these contaminants in their bodies, threatening their immune and reproductive systems.
Oil Spills and Energy Exploration
Offshore oil and gas exploration and development as well have the potential to impact harp seals. The most meaning gamble posed by these activities is the accidental or illegal discharge of oil or other toxic substances due to their immediate and potentially long-term effects. If exposed to oil, a harp seal'south fur tin no longer repel water. This makes it difficult for the seal to swim, bladder, and keep warm. Inhaling or swallowing oil can damage a seal's respiratory, digestive, reproductive, and central nervous systems. Oil tin can also irritate or burn the seal's skin.
Climate change
Harp seals rely on the availability of suitable sea ice as a haul-out platform for giving nascence, nursing pups, and molting. As such, harp seals are sensitive to changes in the environment that impact the timing and extent of sea ice formation and breakdown.
Scientific Classification
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Mammalia |
| Society | Carnivora |
| Family unit | Phocidae |
| Genus | Pagophilus |
| Species | groenlandicus |
Concluding updated past NOAA Fisheries on 02/01/2022
Source: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/harp-seal
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