Seal population rising in and around Saint John Harbour, study says | 24CA News
There are extra seals in and round Saint John Harbour than there have been 30 years in the past, they usually’re staying year-round.
Those are the findings of researchers who lately accomplished the primary research of the seal inhabitants within the space because the early Nineties.
Although they do not have onerous numbers, “the numbers that we counted on rocks were higher than the number that they had counted in the 90s,” stated Shauna Sands, the lead writer and former conservation co-ordinator with the Atlantic Coastal Action Program in Saint John.
From December 2018 till March 2023, Sands and her crew counted seals at six totally different “haul-out sites,” rocky protected havens the place seals are recognized to assemble to relaxation, sunbathe, or disguise from predators.
Every two weeks at low tide, researchers would use recognizing scopes and generally drones to depend the variety of seals on these rocks. Sands says she and her crew modelled their research on the final one which was accomplished in 1991 in order that outcomes could be comparable.
The crew used the identical areas as nicely, together with Shag Rocks, Island Bar and Round Reef within the harbour. They additionally carried out counts at Dog Rocks, close to the Irving Nature Park, the Musquash Ledges close to Black Beach, and Sea Dog Cove on the Kennebecasis River.
“When we did our research, we found there were seals all the time,” stated Sands. “Their numbers would decrease in certain times of the year, but they were always there.”
She stated it was beforehand believed seals would transfer south every year, prone to the Gulf of Maine, the place meals was extra ample. But now it seems there’s sufficient to keep up the animals all 12 months.
She stated inhabitants numbers had been at their highest within the spring months at many of the analysis websites, with the bottom numbers recorded within the fall.
Over the final 5 years, a seal depend has been occurring in Saint John Harbour to examine on the scale of the inhabitants.
Roxanne MacKinnon, government director of the Atlantic Coastal Action Program, stated the seal inhabitants seems wholesome and that offers scientists a superb indication that their prey populations are additionally doing nicely.
“They are a large marine mammal, so they do feed predominantly on fish and invertebrates like squid,” stated MacKinnon.
“So, by having a healthy seal population, we basically infer that there’s a healthy fish population to support that.”
While the inhabitants is estimated to be within the tons of, MacKinnon says the research wasn’t designed to present a selected quantity on what number of seals inhabit the harbour, however as an alternative it gives information that may be in comparison with earlier research to determine wether the inhabitants seems to be rising, shrinking, or plateauing.
“Getting down to the actual number was kind of out of the feasibility of the study just because we can’t be everywhere,” stated MacKinnon.
“We can’t see all the seals at the same time, but … on an observation day, we are seeing seals into the hundreds. So we know there’s at least hundreds of seals kicking around.”
A shocking species
Researchers know that harbour seals are the most typical sort within the space, however throughout this research they had been caught off guard by one other seal species that stored popping up.
“We were surprised by the amount of grey seals that were out in our harbour, said Sands. “We did a couple of boat surveys and we did discover that there have been plenty of gray seals hauled out.”
She says the biologists who accomplished the previous research did not see that many.
Sands says that gray seals, that are bigger, have not been studied extensively within the harbour, so it is unknown if their inhabitants is rising, however she expects that can be studied in a future venture.
