Kenai Fjords, AK
Original photo by Christina Jacobs.
Used by permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Nonderivative License.
Tour boats at Northwestern Glacier and other locations in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska often see groups of seals hauled out on small ice floes. The cold, nutrient-rich water provides them excellent feeding opportunities and relative isolation.
Fanø, Denmark
Photo by Carsten Strecker
Given to public domain.
Off the coast of South Jutland, Fanø is a North Sea island ringed with sandy beaches. It is opposite Esbjerg on the mainland, where the Fisheries and Maritime Museum maintains a Sealarium, which displays gray and harbor seals, and rescues stranded wild ones.
Herne Bay, UK
Photo by Mark Stevens.
Used by permission.
This colony off the SE coast of England near Kent is adjacent to large human populations, yet is mostly unknown. That pups have needed to be picked up here by British Divers Marine Life Rescue strongly suggests that disturbances are occuring.
Brora Beach, UK
Photo © Charlie Phillips.
Used by permission.
Unlike some other areas on the west side of Scotland, where pups are typically born on seaweed-covered rocks, Brora in the north east offers what the photographer describes as 'a nice sand beach where there is minimal disturbance.'
Given that he adds, 'The east coast around Montrose has had a few animals turning up with shooting injury damage,' minimal disturbance is clearly a good thing. Pupping here typically occurs between June and late September.
Race Rocks, BC, Canada
Photo by 'Aqua Green'.
Used by permission.
Race Rocks, a Canadian Marine Protected Area, is a set of small islands and intertidal and subtidal reefs located just south of Vancouver Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Seals are not protected only here, according to the photographer. She reports that Canadian law prohibits intentionally disturbing them and 'the general guidline is to stay 100 metres away.'
Bantry Bay, Ireland
Photo by 'Moward'.
Used by permission.
The photographer reports that 'the seal population in this part of Ireland is very healthy,' and that hunting them is illegal. This photo was taken from a ferry, and the seals are apparently 'used to humans due to the large amount of sea traffic in the area.'
He adds, 'When I have been out in my dinghy the seals will play chase and follow us back to the pier!'
Monomoy Islands, MA
Photo courtesy Christopher Seufert
(c) Mooncusser Films, LLC.
At Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, southwest of Cape Cod, harbor seals share haulouts and nursery beaches with their larger gray seal cousins.
Casa Beach, CA
Photo by Jim Hudnall.
Used by permission.
The Casa Beach haulout-nursery beach is the site of perhaps the most tense protection/disturbance confrontations currently occurring. MMPA enforcement is feeble, despite public outcry.
Helogland, Germany
Original photo by Andreas Trepte, Marburg.
Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license with notice.
An island in the Wadden Sea in northwestern Germany, where significant numbers of seals have died from PDV. Nearby 'Seehundstation' carries out rescue and rehabilitation efforts as well as research and public education.
Cap Gaspé, Quebec
Photo taken in July 2005 by Danielle Langlois at the Forillon National Park in Quebec, Canada.
Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license 2.5.
Harbor seals in this park have been analyzed for their 'aggregation' behavior at haulouts. One conclusion drawn by the British Journal of Animal Ecology was that 'No fighting advantage was found in larger size, but the first animal to land on the site was generally the winner.'
Downeast ME
Photo by Gale McCullough.
Used by permission.
The photographer has been researching seals along the rocky coasts of Maine for over 25 years, and has come to know individuals by their markings.
Fishers Island, NY
Photo by 'eclectic echoes'.
Used by permission.
Likely to be seasonal migrants from Maine, one member of this group was seen with a radio tracking transmitter glued to its head by a rescue/research institution.
Kildalton Skerries, Islay, UK
Photo by George Middleton
Save Our Seals Fund
Used by permission.
These 'common' seals, also referred to as 'harbour' seals in Scotland, were hauled out off the Seal Rescue Centre at Kildalton, Isle of Islay.
Myrtle Beach, SC
Photo by Anne Wilson.
Used by permission.
Harbor seals have been making a comeback along the southeastern Atlantic coast of the US. This photo from a state park in South Carolina, documents the only sighting in 2003. Prior to 1994, there were only four records of seals seen in the state. 'Since 1994, when the National Ocean Service in Charleston, South Carolina began recording sightings, there have been 26.' - NOAA/NOS Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research; McFee/Zolman (available from the link)
Hopkins Marine Station
Monterey, CA
Photo by 'g-na'.
Used by permission.
'There are over 150 harbor seals of all ages hauled out on this beach,' reports the photographer, a volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito, CA. This site has been fenced to the public for over 50 years, and has recently been the subject of a study indicating ocean warming. Although the degree of species diversity today is the same as surveyed half-a-century ago, the balance has shifted from primaily cold-water organisms to warm-water ones. Apparently this harbor seal colony has manged to thrive on at least the newer mix. During the 'Cannery Row' period, they were discouraged by human competition and outright violence.
Port Joli, NS
Photo by S. Evelyn Vincent
Used by permission.
Our first image of a haulout in the Canadian Maritimes, this photo was taken through a viewing telescope provided by the Seaside Adjunct of the Kejimkujik National Park.
That the seals would stay so far from the shore is not surprising, given the hostility many professionals in the Canadian fishing industry feel towards any pinniped. 'Nuisance' seals are routinely killed, with no record kept or responsibility to dispose of the carcass.
'Seal watching' is, of course, advertised for kayaking, cabin rental, and boat tours in the area, part of the fabled Novia Scotia South Shore. The Snowy Plover in the same region is protected by law, and ardently looked after by birders.
Even at this distance, these seals are wary.
San Juan Island, WA
Photo copyright Sandy Buckley.
Used by permission.
The San Juan Islands of Washington are perhaps better known for their whale watching (think Orca, the carniverous 'killer whale') than for their harbor seals.
The photographer comments, 'Our resident orcas eat fish, and this photo was taken during a very close pass of all three pods this summer (84+ whales). The seals - as you can see - could not have cared less that the big guys were in the water not 4 feet off the rocks.'
The February 2000 Seal Atlas from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife records over 50 resting/haulout/pupping sites in the San Juan Channel alone, and counts up to 500 animals at two of these locations.
Despite the MMPA, local residents still report 'shot seals' on occasion, with the culprits as yet unidentified.
Newport, RI
Photo by 'RI_Drifter'.
Used by permission.
Rhode Island is annually the winter home for many seals from Maine and the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. There are around 15 haulout sites in Narragansett Bay, where this photo was taken on a Save The Bay Seal Watching cruise. Annual counts in the Bay have recorded up to 268 animals on a single day, with the number increasing after the passage of the MMPA -- and the ending of a bounty. This group was found just under the Newport Bridge, approachable only by boat.
Commander Islands, Russia
Photo copyright Morten Joergensen.
Used by permission.
This is our first image of an Insular seal (P.v.stejnegeri), graciously offered to us by an inspired (and well-travelled) Danish wildlife photographer. This harbor seal subspecies lives along the northeastern coasts of Asia, from the islands of Japan to the tip of the Aleutians.
This mature seal was found in the waters of the Commander State Natural Reserve, an island nature preserve in the Kamchatka region with exceptional diversity of flora and fauna. With the exception of tragically over-hunted species such as the Steller's sea cow, most of the animals traditionally found here can be seen by ecotourists on naturalist-guided excursions, and are protected within its boundaries.
Svalbard, Norway
Photo copyright Morten Joergensen.
Used by permission.
The Svalbard Archipelago is the northernmost part of the Kingdom of Norway, located in the Arctic Ocean halfway to the North Pole. This image is from the extreme limit of the range of the Eastern Atlantic subspecies of harbor seal (P.v. vitulina), graciously provided by the same Danish photographer who has also shared his image of an Insular seal (P.v. stejnegeri) from Russia.
'Svalbard' means 'cold edge in old Norse, while the former name of 'Spitsbergen' comes from Dutch, meaning 'jagged mountains'. The islands were an international whaling base for centuries, and while it is legal under licence to hunt Ringed and Bearded seals in season, other seals and polar bears are protected.
Bird watching is an attraction for tourists to the islands, but people also come for the flora, and scenery, ice and history. And, of course, the pinnipeds, which include walruses, Ringed and Bearded seals as well as Harp, Hooded, and Harbor seals.