Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the mid-20th century, approximately 300,000 harp seals were being harvested annually in the Northwest At-
lantic. Increasingly older seals were being taken, resulting in a marked decline in population size and pup pro-
duction. The population was probably halved to about 1.5 million juvenile and adult seals by 1970. In the
1980s, a European Community ban on seal products, in particular whitecoat pelts, dramatically reduced de-
mand and consequently the annual harvest. As a result, the harp seal population has rebounded and now stands
at nearly 7 million older seals, with an annual pup production of a half million animals.
Harp seals occur in greater abundance, at any one time, along the Labrador coast than any other type of seal.
The ringed seal is the most common resident seal, however, and the only one found along the coast year round.
Ringed seals are primarily Arctic and subarctic residents and therefore occur in higher numbers in northern
than in central or southern Labrador. They are most numerous along the Labrador coast in late spring, when
they occur in areas of landfast ice.
Unlike harp, bearded, and hooded seals, which frequent areas of pack ice, ringed seals breed primarily in
areas of landfast ice. Whelping takes place mainly in March and April. The seals give birth in “dens” that they
have hollowed out in the sea ice. During the winter they are believed to feed along the floe edge or under the
sea ice, traveling between breathing holes, which they create when the ice is thin and which they keep open
during the winter. When the ice breaks up in spring, they move inshore to feed, largely on Arctic cod and
Greenland cod. In summer the population is found farther north along the coast, in bays and fiords.
A harp seal pup is known as a “whitecoat.” Within twelve days of birth, it will triple its weight, then molt, shedding
its namesake coat for a silvery one flecked with dark spots.
Bearded seals are not nearly as common in Labrador waters as either ringed or harp seals. Few remain in
Labrador waters in summer, and those that do are found near the northern tip at Cape Chidley. They are most
