Breeding & Whelping area of Harp Seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus)
Harp Seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus) breed in
exactly four areas of the North Atlantic and adjacent
waters. In the western Atlantic, these are the Newfoundland
/ Labrador Ice Front and the southern Gulf of Saint
Lawrence. These two areas are separated by the Strait
of Belle Isle at the tip of the Northern
Peninsula of Newfoundland, as well as the freshwater outflow
of the St. Lawrence River. In the Eastern Atlantic, breeding
populations occur at Jan Mayen Island, east of
Greenland, and in the White Sea east of the
Kola Peninsula. Over-hunting of the Jan Mayen population in
the early 20th century reduced its numbers to a small
fraction of its former size. The extent to which gene flow
connects the Greenland and White Sea population, as well as
trans-Atlantic exchange, has been a long-standing question.
Genetic relationships between the four areas are examined in
Carr et al. (2015).
The Dominion of Newfoundland was a separate nation until union with the Dominion of Canada in 1949. Its postage stamps often depict wildlife: this stamp shows a "White Coat", a neonatal pup prior to weaning at ca. 12 days of age.
The Dominion of Newfoundland was a separate nation until union with the Dominion of Canada in 1949. Its postage stamps often depict wildlife: this stamp shows a "White Coat", a neonatal pup prior to weaning at ca. 12 days of age.