IMIS - Marine Research Groups

Visual counts of grey and harbor seals were made during 5 helicopter surveys in 1985-87 and 1991-92 along the coast and offshore islands of the Bay of Fundy region from Machias Seal Island to Quaco Head, New Brunswick, and from Parkers Cove to Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Each survey targeted a 4-hour window centred at low tide such that any shoal areas emergent only at low tide would be censused. The survey indicated detailed haul-out site preferences for both species, and provided evidence for increasing abundance of harbor seals. The population status of grey seals in the area could not be determined. Several aspects of survey methodology are also examined. The purpose of the surveys was i) to obtain baseline data on the distribution and abundance of the seals in the Bay of Fundy; ii) to determine if aerial surveys could be successfully used in this region to develop a time series of data to monitor population trends; and iii) based on distribution and abundance, to examine which seal species (harbor or grey) was probably responsible for the depredations in the Bay of Fundy. The OBIS collection is a subset of the report's dataset containing species distribution information with presence information only (no abundance or biomass estimates). The following reports on the OBIS schema fields provided for in this dataset: Res_Name, DateLastModified, InstitutionCode, CollectionCode, ScientificName, CatalogNumber, Latitude, Longitude, BasisOfRecord, Kingdom, Genus, Species, YearCollected, MonthCollected, DayCollected, Phylum, ClassName, OrderName, Family, SubGenus, SubSpecies, JulianDay, Locality, Temperature, Notes (AphiaID: value).