The Harbor Seal: The Most Ubiquitous Phocid in the Northern Hemisphere

Silencing the Shore: The Effects of Onshore Anthropogenic Noise on Marine Mammal Abundances Informed by Mixed Methods

“…Mackerel and Sardines are also both known prey species of Harbor Seals, so a negative effect of each on the abundance of Harbor Seals was unexpected. (See Harvey et al 12 and references therein. )…”

“…This dataset, while not inclusive of all prey species, offers a proxy that was available for the entirety of our study period. Given the generalist and opportunistic nature of Harbor Seal foraging and their wide variety of prey species 12,47 we assumed this suite of forage sh to be reasonably robust to describe the relationship between food stock and Harbor Seal abundance.…”

“…Data collected in the qualitative interviews and the authors' personal knowledge of the Monterey Bay Area suggest that other suitable haul-out sites in the area are limited or at capacity. Therefore, impact to abundance at the beaches at HMS constitute a consequential impact to the population 23,24,12,25 .…”

“…Disturbance in or around preferred haul-out sites is particularly risky for this species given their high site delity and local residency 23,12,24,25 . Anthropogenic disturbance in uences both habitat suitability and individual seal behavior at these sites.…”

“…Harbor Seal Disturbance Ecology. The Harbor Seal is a common marine mammal in the Phocidae family of earless seals, which is globally distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere 12,13 . Much of the seals' time is spent hauled out on the beach in protected bays and harbors 14 .…”