Breeding & Whelping area of Harp Seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus)
Harp Seals breed in only 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. Overhunting of the Jan
Mayen population reduced its numbers to a small fraction of
its former size. The extent to which gene flow connects the
western and eastern pairs, 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.