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harbor seals

Phoca vitulina

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41.4973, -71.337

Field Notes

Description:

This is the area near Rose Island (Citing Rock). The seals love to rest on rocks in many locations throughout the bay. There were about sixty in this small section area on this morning.

Habitat:

These seals spend the winter in Narragansett Bay. Due to the hard work of many including Save The Bay, the Narragansett Bay has seen extensive habitat restoration. The support pilings for the Claiborne Pell Bridge (Newport Bridge) can be seen in the background.

Notes:

Twenty years ago there were no seals wintering here due to the poor condidtions in the bay. Now there are 500-600 each winter.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (3)
DebraKuonMerchant
Thanks! Yes, Narragansett Bay is an original territory for the harbor seals and 25 years ago you would not have seen them, but now there are so many. So much work has been done to clean up the bay. We all owe a great debt of gratitude to an organization called Save the Bay. They have spearheaded so many of the efforts towards saving our very special bay!
galewhale..Gale
I've been studying Harbor Seals in Maine for over 30 years (yikes!!) It is amazing to see how far their range has expanded!! Great work making things clean enough for them to move back to what was probably an original territory? The Marine Mammal Protection act was really important too because the population everywhere was able to rebound. I have a friend on Long Island who studies a population that is just beginning to flourish there. http://www.cresli.org/cresli/seals/hbrseals.html
DebraKuonMerchant
Thanks. They are hauled out on rocks that are only visible at lower tides.

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Marine Mammals of the World
Photographed
PublishedMarch 13, 2013

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