The
Harp Seal (
Phoca groenlandica; syn.
Pagophilus groenlandicus) is a species of earless seal native to the northernmost
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
and adjacent parts of the
Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.
The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some...
.
Harp Seals separate into three populations according to their breeding locations; the
White SeaThe White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast....
, the West Ice between
Jan MayenJan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, 55 km long and 373 km
2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km wide...
and
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
, and the Northwest Atlantic near Newfoundland and Labrador,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Seals breeding in the Northwest Atlantic represent the largest population and are genetically different from seals breeding in the two other areas, which have not been proven genetically different from each other.
The
Harp Seal (
Phoca groenlandica; syn.
Pagophilus groenlandicus) is a species of earless seal native to the northernmost
Atlantic OceanThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
and adjacent parts of the
Arctic OceanThe Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions.
The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although some...
.
Population
Harp Seals separate into three populations according to their breeding locations; the
White SeaThe White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast....
, the West Ice between
Jan MayenJan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, 55 km long and 373 km
2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km wide...
and
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
, and the Northwest Atlantic near Newfoundland and Labrador,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Seals breeding in the Northwest Atlantic represent the largest population and are genetically different from seals breeding in the two other areas, which have not been proven genetically different from each other. They are however visually indistinguishable, and a degree of mixing between the populations occurs.
The Northwest population
There are no reliable estimates of the size of Northwest Atlantic population when commercial hunting began in the early 1800s. Several simulation models estimated virginal populations to be in the 3 to 4 million range. It is considered that the population recovered to about 3 million at the end of World War II, but subsequently declined by 50–66% between 1950 and 1970 due to commercial hunting in Canada. Quotas and other conservation measures since then have enabled the population to nearly triple in size to an unhealthily large 5.4 million according to a peer-reviewed survey in 1999.(citation to journal needed)
White Sea and West Ice populations
Mature females usually give birth to one pup in March/April each year. The pups are born within well defined areas in the drift ice in the White Sea or in the area between
Jan MayenJan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, 55 km long and 373 km
2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km wide...
and East
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
(the West Ice population). Harp Seals migrate in search for food over large areas in the
Barents SeaThe Barents Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean located north of Norway and Russia. It is a rather deep shelf sea , bordered by the shelf edge towards the Norwegian Sea in the west, the island of Svalbard in the northwest, and the islands of Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya in the northeast and...
, the
Norwegian SeaThe Norwegian Sea is part of the North Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Norway, located between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea....
, the
Greenland SeaThe Greenland Sea is the northernmost part of the North Atlantic Ocean immediately south of the Arctic Ocean. It encompasses some 1,205,000 square km . The average depth of the Greenland Sea is close to 1,450 m...
and the
Denmark Straitthumb|250px|Location mapThe Denmark Strait is a strait between Greenland and Iceland . The Norwegian island of Jan Mayen is located northeast of the strait....
.
The population size in 2000 was estimated to be more than 300,000 in the White Sea and 361,000 in the West Ice.
The annual prey consumption was in 2000 estimated to about 3.5 million tonnes in the White Sea area (Nilssen et al. 2000).
Breeding
Each year, mature females (5–6 years old) give birth to a single pup, typically in late February. Pups weigh approximately 10 kg and are 80–85 cm long. Immediately after giving birth, the mother smells her offspring, and from that point on will only ever feed her own pup, whose scent she remembers. Harp Seal milk contains up to 48% fat, so pups gain over 2 kg per day when nursing, which lasts roughly 12 days. During this time the mother does not eat, and will lose up to 3 kg per day of body weight. Weaning is abrupt; the mother simply leaves and never comes back. The stranded pup will cry at first, and then become very sedentary to conserve body fat.
Pups are unable to swim or find food until they are about 25 days old, leaving them very vulnerable to
polar bearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It is also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately...
s and seal hunters. Due in part to the period of helplessness as infants, and to the long time it takes them to become proficient swimmers, as many as 30% of pups fail to survive their first year. Also, although it is not legal to catch seals using nets, thousands of seals are inadvertently killed in
commercial fishingCommercial fishing is the activity of capturing fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse...
nets every year.
When the mother weans its pup, mature males (6–7 years old) roam around breeding with the females promiscuously. While
courtshipCourtship is the traditional dating period before engagement and marriage. During a courtship, a couple dates to get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement...
begins on the ice, the actual mating takes place in the water. Harp Seals have delayed implantation, meaning the fertilized egg becomes an embryo, but does not implant in the uterus right away. The embryo will float around for about three and a half months before implanting and beginning to grow. This allows all the females to give birth within a very small time window each year, when the ice pack is available for giving birth and raising their young.
Migration and vagrancy
Harp Seals are strongly migratory. The northwest population regularly moves up to 4,000 km northeast outside of the breeding season; one tagged individual of this population was recovered at sea off the north Norwegian coast, 4,640 km east-north-east of its tagging location. Their navigational accuracy is very high, with good eyesight being an important factor.
They are occasionally found as a
vagrantVagrancy is a phenomenon in biology whereby individual animals appear well outside their normal range; individual animals which exhibit vagrancy are known as vagrants. The term accidental is sometimes also used...
south of its normal range. In
Great BritainGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
, a total of 31 were recorded between 1800 and 1988, with one subsequently, on
LindisfarneLindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England also known as Holy Island, the name of the civil parish. The name Lindisfarne derives from Farne meaning "retreat" and Lindis, a small tidal river adjacent to the island. It has a population of 162...
in
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is a ceremonial county and unitary district in the North East of England. It borders Cumbria to the west, County Durham to the south and Tyne and Wear to the south east, as well as having a border with the Scottish Borders council area to the north, and nearly eighty miles of North...
in September 1995.
One recorded in the
Shetland IslandsShetland is an archipelago in Scotland, off the northeast coast. The islands lie to the northeast of Orkney, from the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total area is approximately 1,466 km²...
in 1987 was linked to a mass movement of Harp Seals into Norwegian waters; by mid-February 1987, 24,000 were reported drowned in fishermen's nets and perhaps 300,000 (about 10% of the world population) had invaded fjords as far south as
Oslois the capital and largest city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the town was largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish–Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania . Oslo, then an alternative name, became official again in 1925...
. The animals were in an emaciated condition and this was believed to be the result of food shortages, likely due to over-fishing by humans.
Diet
Harp Seals are opportunistic feeders, and will eat almost anything that is in great abundance. They have eaten massive amounts of Cod fish helping to decrease their number as well. It is estimated that each adult harp seal consumes 1.0-1.4 tonnes of fish annually, which translates to a consumption of 6 million metric tonnes each year by the North Atlantic population. This usually includes a wide variety of fish, still including Cod, and invertebrates, and their diet seems to vary during different stages of life. Since reporting of the stomach contents of killed seals began in 1941, at least 67 species of fish and 70 species of invertebrates have been found to be part of the Harp Seal's diet.
Natural predators
Predators include
Polar BearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land. It is also the largest bear, together with the omnivore Kodiak bear which is approximately...
s,
OrcaThe Killer Whale or Orca , or less commonly, Blackfish, is the largest species of the dolphin family. Most people think that they are whales, but they are actually dolphins. They are called killer whales often because they sometimes hunt whales for food...
s,
sharkSharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago, before the time of the dinosaurs....
s, in some areas
WalrusThe walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
es, while Humans are their primary predator. They have been hunted by humans for various products including fur, oil and meat for over 4,000 years, and more recently to mitigate their negative impact on local commercial fisheries.
Seal hunting
All three populations are hunted commercially, mainly by
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
. In hunting terminology, Harp Seals are often given different names according to their age:
- Whitecoats: Birth to 2 weeks
- Ragged jackets: 2 to 4 weeks
- Beaters: 4 weeks to 1 year
- Bedlamers: 1 to 4 years
- Spotted harp: 4 to 7 years
- Dark harp: mature/adult
In Canada, the season for the commercial hunt is from November 15 to May 15. The majority of sealing, however, occurs in late March in The Gulf of St. Lawrence, and during the first or second week of April off Newfoundland, in an area known as "The Front". This peak spring period is generally what is referred to as the "Canadian Seal Hunt". The hunting of whitecoats in Canada has been banned since 1987. In 2006, the St. Lawrence seal hunt officially started on March 25. This date was initially uncertain, due to thin ice conditions caused by the year's milder temperatures.
InuitInuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska...
people living in the region hunt them mainly for food and to a lesser extent, commercial reasons.
In 2003, the three-year quota granted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was increased to a maximum of 975,000 animals, with a maximum of 350,000 animals in any two consecutive years. In 2006, 325,000 Harp Seals, as well as 10,000 Hooded Seals and 10,400
Grey SealThe Grey Seal is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a large seal of the family Phocidae or "true seals". It is the only species classified in the genus Halichoerus...
s were killed. An additional 10,000 animals are allocated for hunting by natives.
The Canadian seal hunt is monitored by the Canadian Government. However, although approximately 70% of Canadian seals killed are killed on "The Front", the vast majority of private monitors focus on the St. Lawrence hunt, due to its more convenient location.
External links