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Seal counts fell at a haul-out site, but remained higher in the creek

Research: Ecology · Conservation: Management

Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) rest out of the water at haul-out sites. In Bellingham, Washington, researchers tracked seal counts at Log Pond, where floating haul-out structures were removed between 2015 and 2022, and in nearby Whatcom Creek, which provides foraging habitat. Removing artificial resting platforms has been proposed as a nonlethal way to reduce seal presence and presumed predation near salmon habitat. The researchers asked how counts at the two sites changed during the removals.

Different trends at the resting site and creek

At Log Pond, the model-estimated count peaked at 33.3 seals in 2013, then fell 90% to 3.4 in 2017. It rose 101% to 6.8 in 2019 before dropping to near zero in 2023. In Whatcom Creek, the estimate rose 135% from 2.4 seals in 2011 to 5.8 in 2021, then dipped 6% to 5.4 in 2023.

The contrasting trends suggest that removing artificial haul-out structures may reduce the number of seals resting at a targeted site without necessarily reducing seal counts in nearby foraging habitat. The creek estimate dipped by 2023, but remained above its 2011 level.

The study counted seals; it did not measure seal predation on salmon or salmon survival. It therefore cannot show whether removing the structures improved conditions for salmon.

Sources and image credit

  1. Temporal Trends in Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Counts Throughout Removal of Artificial Haul-Out Sites Adjacent to Critical Salmon HabitatPrimærkilde. Publisher-siden bekrefter publiseringsdatoen og gir sammendraget med studieområde, modellanslag og forskernes tolkning. Fullteksten var ikke tilgjengelig.

Image: Giles Laurent / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Representative photograph. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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