Harbor Seal Research Paper

The Polar bear lives in the artic and uses the area’s costal waters and ice sheets. They are well equipped to live in this environment because they have a thick coat which serves as an insulator. They mainly prey on seals but have also been known to consume dead whales. They can grow to be 7.25 to 8 feet tall and can weigh around 900 to 1,600 pounds. Polar bears are a keystone species, if their numbers decrease there is a possibility that the seal populations will increase which could be devastating for crustaceans and fish. They help keep populations in balance.

The most important thing to a harbor seals survival is its habitat, which determines shelter, adaptations, evolution, and the type of food available. Harbor seals live in shallow waters of coastal areas, sandy beaches, rocky islands, mudflats, and bays.

Due to misinformation, some believe that the monk seal’s primary diet is commercial fish, and competes with local fishers by eating its weight in fish in a single day— this is patently untrue, as no large mammal would be able to consume that much food in a single day. Some believe that the seals were brought in by the federal government and are not actually endemic to Hawaii. While it’s true that the main population of monk seals have existed in the Northwest Hawaiian islands (NWHI), there is archaeological evidence from before the 19th century that the seals coexisted with humans in the MHI (Watson et al). Since they are also a relatively rare species, their cultural prevalence has not been as strong as some species (i.e., sea turtles). The use of historical Hawaiian newspapers, as well as research into Hawaiian etymology, as well as archaeological and anthropological investigations can help add to our knowledge base (Watson et al). NOAA’s Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center, and the Marine Conservation Institute are doing much to dispel these myths by providing informational websites to the

The population decline in monk seals is due to several different factors with the biggest reason due to the low pup and juvenile survival rates (Curtice et al, 2011). At the Kure Atoll on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, 32 pups were observed in 1964 and 30 pups were observed in 1965. Of these pups born, all but one died or disappeared within 60 days after birth. This was also seen in the 1970’s at Green Island and Kure Atoll, where a mean population of 17 and 14 seals, respectively, was counted on these beaches, with a birth total of 10 showing a population decline of 70% (Gilmartin et al, 2011). The juvenile survival rate is still seen today with one in five monk seals surviving to the reproductive age, with one year old seals having the highest mortality rates (Norris et al, 2011).

Some of the most dangerous animals to both humans and other sea animals are Leopard Seals. Leopard Seals are the second largest species in the Antarctic. The Sea Leopard can be found mainly in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is estimated to live 26 years, some sea leopards live beyond 26 years of age. Leopard seals mainly eat other seals, penguins, fish and krill.

Seals are mammals that live in the Atlantic Ocean near the Arctic. Snow will accumulate near the Arctic and seals get used to the cold weather all the time. Seals enjoy swimming deep into the cold water. When the weather starts to warm up, they all tan in the burning sun and lay on the

et al. 2009). They will forage in the water for krill or fish, but larger Leopard seals will

Sea lions, on the other hand, are able to walk on land by rotating their hind flippers forward and underneath their big bodies. This is why they are more likely to be employed in aquaria and marine shows. Sea lions congregate in gregarious groups called herds or rafts that can reach upwards of 1,500 individuals. It's common for scores of them to haul out together and loll about in the sand, comprising an amorphous pile in the noonday sun. Seals are less social than their sea-lion cousins. They spend more time in the water than sea lions do and often lead solitary lives in the wild, coming ashore together only once a year to meet and mate. California sea lions bark incessantly when establishing territories. The males bark only when maintaining and defending their territories. Although sea lions do not make a wide range of sounds, they are very noisy, and easily one of the most vocal mammals on Earth. Grunts, groans and snores abound in a colony of sea lions. Groans and squeals may occur with the mouth closed, often accompanied by billowing cheeks, but classic barks and roars are delivered with jaws agape, and the noise is nearly constant. California sea lions are members of the "eared seal" family,

Lipid fat increases as the duration of the feeding trip increases (12). This suggests a correlation in length of feeding and lipid content. The Northern fur seal spends 7 days foraging and has 51% fat milk. Galapagos fur seal spends 12 hours foraging and has 40% fat milk. The Antarctic fur seal spends 5 days foraging and has 40% fat milk. The Galapagos sea lion spends 12 hours foraging and has 18% milk fat. The California sea lion spends 4 days foraging and has 32% fat milk. Age and the total number of days nursed by mother at weaning varies between species: Northern fur seal 125;125, Galapagos fur seal 800;-, Antarctic fur seal 117;117, Galapagos seal lion 341;-, and the California sea lion 300

The aquatic hierarchy is a carefully balanced ecosystem. With all the species intact and flourishing, the ocean thrives. But, like the great Pyramids of Egypt, if one component is out of place, the whole system collapses. This could lead to more danger than most people realize. For example, if the coral reefs are destroyed, sea turtles, fish, eels, and multiple other species would die. Or, if the Great White Shark went extinct, fish and seals would overpopulate and endanger the rest of the ecosystem. However distant this mass extinction seems, a small portion of it is slowly occurring before our eyes. Whales are only one of the multiple creatures suffering from our neglect, and not only are they suffering, but the hierarchy of ocean life and even us, as humans, are affected by this disastrous event.

There are hundreds of aquatic mammals that depend on fresh water and the ocean to survive. Marine animals do not have a certain taxon or systematic grouping. They are joined together by their need to feed in a marine environment. There are several types of marine animals which include pinnipeds, cetaceans, sirenians. Marine mammalogists are specialized marine biologist that study marine mammals. To keep and ensure the safety of these animals we rely on marine mammalogists. Marine mammalogists study the relationships, conduct research and rehabilitation of these wonderful creatures. For my career, I chose to study cetaceans. Cetaceans include whales, dolphins, and porpoises. They

Harp seals (Phoca groenlandica) were very abundant in the region at the time and there exists evidence suggesting their numbers increased (Sten- son et al. 1993). Additionally, studies have shown that the contribution of cod to the seal diet overwinter area was greater than reported (Hammill et al. 2014). To measure the degree to which seal predation contributed to the fishery cod collapse the results of the study conducted by Savenkoffa and colleagues (2007) will be analyzed and compared to other papers on seal predation pressure on cods near the time the collapse

A steady decrease in whale populations can have a top-down effect on many other species in the ecosystem, especially penguin, seal, and krill. The reasoning is because whales are a keystone species in the Southern Ocean (Ainley,

The Mediterranean monk seal pups are different from others seals as they have a black wooly coat and which or yellow patch on the belly. Their coat tends to darken with age and the older males are believed to be black (Aguilar, A. & Lowry, L. 2008). Mediterranean monk seals are usually in warm coastal water. In the past, it tends to use sandy beaches for mating. However, due to the increasing human present over the years have changed the habitats preference to inaccessible coasts and remote caves with underwater entrances (Karamanlidis, A.A., S. Gaughran, A. Aguilar, P. Dendrinos, D. Huber, R. Pires, J. Schultz, T. Skrbinšek and G. Amato. 2016). They consume fish, mollusks and octopus (WWF,

The first reason for saving the polar bears given by the Anti-Naturalists is the effect on the food chain. In the artic, the polar bear is one of the few creatures at the very top, it is a keystone species. Polar bear’s diets consist mainly of one specific marine mammal, the seal. Without the polar bear the entire population of the seal would rise significantly. With no predators to lower the population there would be a skyrocket amount of growth and a very small amount of death. This means that the diet of the seal, which mainly consists of small fish and plankton, would also be affected negatively. A large