Seal Rehabilitation Study Updates
Update January 7
It's winter out there and the harbor seals we are tracking are not spending much time out of the water or even resting at the surface. These are the only times we can get their position by satellite. As a result it's difficult for us to know at this point if animals have died or if they are just not coming up when the satellites are overhead and the transmitters are on.
The most recent data show that we only have gotten positions on 5 rehabilitated seals and 7 wild ones in the last month. This could represent 50% mortality in the rehab group and 30% in the wild group or it could be an artifact of the season. We won't know for a few months.
On a fascinating note, Monkeyflower is half way up the westside of Vancouver Island only to be outdone by Vetch who is almost to the top of Vancouver Island. That's a long way to swim!
Update December 6 - Queen Charlotte Sound!
Seal Y1611, one of the wild-weaned pups, is now up in Queen Charlotte Sound, north of Vancouver Island. Honeysuckle is at the top of the Long Beach peninsula in southern Washington.
Update November 22: Dogwood found again
The rehabilitated seal named Dogwood had been AWOL for a few weeks and some of us were concerned he might be dead. But he showed up again today, way out past the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
B1851 is up by Tofino on the outside of Vancouver Island.
Tracking is happening less frequently now as the seals get older. This is to preserve the battery life of the transmitters. The equipment only cycles on every few days for a short period of time. The seals don't get spotted if the transmitter doesn't breach the surface when it's on and a satellite is overhead.
Update November 16: Pacific Ocean!
Big travels to report!
Honeysuckle, previously one of our sleeper seals, has headed out to the Pacific Ocean. She's now west of
Update November 10: "lost" wild seal reappears
Seal Y1610, a female, has not been transmitting since August 24, but she popped up near Victoria yesterday. She is no longer on the "presumed dead" list.
We're not sure what happened. Maybe she spends a lot of time underwater. Or the transmitter malfunctioned for a while. There's also a possibility that the transmitter just washed up on shore. We'll share more details when we have them.
Her map is the first one on our wild-weaned seal page.
Update November 9
The seals have been busy. Most of the wild-weaned and rehabilitated seals have stayed fairly close to their release points in the San Juan Islands.
However, a few have taken some long distance voyages.
Snowberry is on her way back east in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She got almost out to Neah Bay (US side) or Port Renfrew (Canadian side).
Phlox is swimming around the islands near Sidney, B.C.
Monkeyflower has made a run across the border and is hanging out on the northwest side of Saturna Island. Previously she had spent a lot of time in the area of White Beach and Olga at the mouth of Eastsound on Orcas Island.
Oceanspray made it all the way up to Vancouver before turning back. She's now south of Point Roberts.
Luina swam way down Hood Canal before turning back. She was picked up yesterday halfway between Port Townsend and the San Juan Islands.
Update October 26
All of the rehabilitated seals are tagged and out in the wild. The seal tracking study was featured on the front page of the Seattle Times this morning.
Update October 20
An update from Chief Scientist Joe Gaydos:
Steve Jeffries flew yesterday and the only seal he heard was Luina (164.344) who was up in canadian waters near Gooch Island - close to where she was last picked up by satellite. He's flying right now (I'm not as Eastsound is socked in with fog- beautiful everywhere else) and just picked up Honeysuckle (164.383) near Turn Island, which also is where she was last picked up by satellite.
Update October 19
Two "lost" seals are back!
Two weeks ago we noted that 5 of the wild-weaned seals were no longer showing up on the satellite tracking. Two of them have since been tracked again, so we currently have 7 wild-weaned and 8 rehabilitated seals being tracked.
Update October 5
As of this week we have 8 rehabilitated seals being tracked. Of the 10 wild-weaned pups, 5 are still actively transmitting and 5 have not transmitted at least a week.
