Monitoring Harbor Seal Abundance Counts at Haul-Out Site on Goose Island

Abstract

Phoca vitulina (harbor seal) haul-out behavior provides metabolic benefits, safety, and reproduction opportunities. Collecting seal count data at these sites between different times of day can provide indications about harbor seal abundance as well as have larger implications for local food webs and impacts of anthropogenic-induced climate change. It was hypothesized that Harbor seal counts will be significantly higher at later times of day due to higher temperatures (thermoregulatory advantages). Overall, it was found that time of day had a significant impact on hauled-out harbor seal counts. This has implications for how their ability to detect predators may decrease with rising sea levels, and in turn affect food web dynamics.