Harbor Seal
Tracking a Rehabilitated Weaned Yearling Harbor Seal
We're sad to note that Sandy was found dead entangled in fishing gear near Edmonds, WA at the end of March. For details see the Seal Sitters Blog.
NOAA's Northwest Marine Mammal Stranding Network responds to stranded marine mammals in Washington and Oregon. Every year harbor seal pups that strand and are rehabilitated are released back into the wild. Last year 10 rehabilitated pups provided novel data on how these animals move post release as compared to wild seals. This year PAWS is releasing an older rehabilitated weaned pup, approximately 9 months old, which will be the first of this age class to be tracked by satellite in Washington state.
Click here to see the full-size tracking map.
Get email updates on Sandy's travels.
Sandy's History
On August 15, 2011 Seal Sitters responded to a pup in West Seattle that was just a few weeks old and named her Sandy. The pup was extremely weak and barely responsive, with numerous infected wounds. She was severely dehydrated and malnourished to the point of emaciation. The pup was transferred to PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center for stabilization, treatment and care. After five months of rehabilitation she was released near a harbor seal haul out in South Puget Sound on January 27, 2012. This animal will provide invaluable data to the network.
Watch a video of Sandy's rehabilitation and release.
About the Northwest Marine Mammal Stranding Network
The network is composed of cooperating scientific investigators and institutions, volunteer networks and individuals. Other organizations also involved are wildlife and fisheries agencies and state and federal law enforcement.
Project Partners
Tracking this animal would not be possible without the collaboration of several network groups which include; Seal Sitters Marine Mammal Stranding Network, PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Mammal Investigations, SeaDoc Society, and NOAA's Protected Resources Division.
Photos of Sandy are © by Robin Lindsey and are used by permission.
Survivor Seal Style: post-release monitoring in rehabilitated seals
Harbor Seal Ringtone
- Pacific harbor seals are the most common marine mammal in Puget Sound, and their populations are healthy.
- Seals share a common ancestor with dogs and bears and have upper and lower arms and legs concealed within their skin. Only their hands and feet extend outside the body envelope.
- Seals have large eyes to see in dark, deep water. They have long necks, which they can shoot out quickly to catch fish while swimming.
- Seals can live in fresh or saltwater; they usually spend their entire lives in an area of about five miles.
- Baby seals are born weighing about 25 pounds. They double their weight in the first month; their mother's milk is 40 percent fat. A mother leaves its pup after the first month to finish growing and fend for itself. Mothers do not teach pups to hunt; they learn on their own.
- Seals dive for three minutes at a time typically, but they can stay under water as long as 30 minutes and dive as deep as 600 feet.
- Unlike humans, harbor seals breathe out before diving. They use oxygen already in their blood and muscles while under water, and their heartbeat slows from about 100 beats per minute to 10.
- In one breath a seal can exchange 90% of the air in its lungs. Humans can only change 20% of our air per breath.
- A seal's whiskers help it hunt and navigate by sensing pressure waves from fish and underwater objects.
- Seal-tissue tests reveal elevated levels of PCBs in animals tested in southern Puget Sound. In the north, seal blubber is contaminated with dioxins and furans from paper mills in the Straits of Georgia.
Love marine mammals? Why not have a harbor seal announce your incoming calls?
We created this ringtone from a recording Joe Gaydos made of a harbor seal.
Download the ringtone for iPhone.
(Right-Click on the link -- or Control-Click on a mac.)
Technical Note: Firefox handles the download properly. Safari on the Mac downloads a useless file. We're way beyond our geek threshold in terms of why this might be happening.
Click here to listen to the ringtone before downloading. (Works in most browsers.) That's an MP3 you can also download for use as a ringtone on Android.
This ringtone works on iPhones. It MIGHT work on Android and other phones. If you're an Android user and want to test it for us, let us know if it works. And if you're an Android guru and can help us create the right kind of file and write the installation instructions, definitely get in touch.
Here's how to install the ringtone on your iPhone:
- Download the file to your computer.
- Drag it onto your iTunes icon in the dock. iTunes will put it in the "ringtones" area.
- Sync your phone with your computer
- Go to Settings > Sound and choose the ringtone as your default ring, or add it to particular contacts.
- You can also use the ringtone as an alarm chime.
Unfortunately, we're not able to provide technical support for installing the ringtone. If you get stuck, try a Google search, as several websites have illustrated guides to adding ringtones to your phone.
Don't miss our killer whale ringtone.
Birds and Mammals that Depend on the Salish Sea: A Compilation
Harbor Seal Skeleton
This skeleton is of a large male harbor seal found dead on a beach in San Juan County.
Probably the first thing you'll notice is that the skeleton looks sort of like a big fat basset hound. Seals share a common ancestor with dogs and bears and they have upper and lower arms and legs concealed within their skin. Only their hands and feet extend outside the body envelope.
Take a look a the huge eye sockets. A seal's eyes are large in order to see prey in dark deep water.
Harbor seals have long necks, but we usually see them with their necks scrunched. When hunting, or when trying to bite a marine biologist, a seal can shoot its neck out surprisingly quickly.
The structure of the front limbs is a lot like that of a human's arms. Note the supporting structure for the fingernails and the tip of each "finger." As with dogs and cats, the shoulder blade is attached only by muscle, not by bone.
Seals have very short femurs and not much mobility in the hip joint. They move through the water with the motion of their back and legs, using the front flippers for steering.
Harbor Seal Facts
- Pacific harbor seals are the most common marine mammal in Puget Sound, and their populations are healthy.
- Seals share a common ancestor with dogs and bears and have upper and lower arms and legs concealed within their skin. Only their hands and feet extend outside the body envelope.
- Seals have large eyes to see in dark, deep water. They have long necks, which they can shoot out quickly to catch fish while swimming.
- Seals can live in fresh or saltwater; they usually spend their entire lives in an area of about five miles.
- Baby seals are born weighing about 25 pounds. They double their weight in the first month; their mother's milk is 40 percent fat. A mother leaves its pup after the first month to finish growing and fend for itself. Mothers do not teach pups to hunt; they learn on their own.
- Seals dive for three minutes at a time typically, but they can stay under water as long as 30 minutes and dive as deep as 600 feet.
- Unlike humans, harbor seals breathe out before diving. They use oxygen already in their blood and muscles while under water, and their heartbeat slows from about 100 beats per minute to 10.
- In one breath a seal can exchange 90% of the air in its lungs. Humans can only change 20% of our air per breath.
- A seal's whiskers help it hunt and navigate by sensing pressure waves from fish and underwater objects.
- Seal-tissue tests reveal elevated levels of PCBs in animals tested in southern Puget Sound. In the north, seal blubber is contaminated with dioxins and furans from paper mills in the Straits of Georgia.
Update September 21th
Seal B1850 continues his long-distance travels around the Salish Sea. He's most recently been spotted by the satellites on the south-east shore of Orcas Island, having covered approximately 159 kilometers between tracking locations.
Seal locations September 3, 2010
Here are a few detailed maps of the travels of a few of the wild-weaned pups. B1850 is really on the move...
New research from Alaska: Steller Sea Lions attacking Harbor Seals
A new paper just released in the Journal of Marine Mammalogy shows that Steller Sea Lion predation on Harbor Seals in Glacier Bay, AK could be responsible for the decline in Harbor Seals in that region.
While there is no evidence that Stellers are predating harbor seals in the Salish Sea region, it will be interesting to watch for this type of activity in the future.
In the Salish Sea, our Harbor Seal population is at carrying capacity and we are seeing more and more Steller Sea Lions in the region in the fall, winter and spring.
Harbor Seal Rehabilitation Study
In 2010 and 2011 SeaDoc is tracking 10 wild-weaned harbor seal pups and 10 stranded-and-rehabilitated pups to see if there are any differences between the two groups.
