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Harbor Seal Pup

The Polar Ecosystems Program conducts research and monitoring on pinnipeds in the Arctic, sub-Arctic, and Antarctic marine ecosystems. The research projects focus primarily on abundance, trends, distribution, and foraging behavior of harbor, bearded, ringed, spotted, and ribbon seals in Alaska. The primary objectives of the program are to support management and assessment of population status under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and to gain a better understanding of the factors responsible for the dynamics of populations and their roles in the ecosystem. 

Program Leader: Peter Boveng

Recent Reports, Publications, and Posters

Recent Cruises Quarterly Reports Publications
  • JOHNSON, D. S., J. M. LONDON, M. A. LEA, and J. W. DURBAN. 2008. Continuous-time correlated random walk model for animal telemetry data. Ecology 89(5):1208-1215. 
     
  • LAAKE, J., R. J. GUENZEL, J. L. BENGTSON, P. BOVENG, M. CAMERON, and M. B. HANSON. 2008. Coping with variation in aerial survey protocol for line-transect sampling. Wildl. Res. 35:289-299. 
     
  • Ver HOEF, J. M. 2008. Spatial methods for plot-based sampling of wildlife populations. Environ. Ecol. Stat. 15(1):3-13. 
     
  • SOUTHWELL, C., C. G. M. PAXTON, D. BORCHERS, P. BOVENG, E. S. NORDØY, A. S. BLIX, and W. de la MARE. 2008. Estimating population status under conditions of uncertainty: the Ross seal in east Antarctica. Antarctic Sci. 20(2):123-133. 
     
  • SOUTHWELL, C., C. G. M. PAXTON, D. BORCHERS, P. BOVENG, and W. de la MARE. 2008. Taking account of dependent species in management of the Southern Ocean krill fishery: Estimating crabeater seal abundance off east Antarctica. J. Appl. Ecol. 45:622-631. 
     
  • CHRIST, A., J. Ver HOEF, and D. L. ZIMMERMAN. 2008. An animal movement model incorporating home range and habitat selection. Environ. Ecol. Stat. 15(1):27-38. 
     
  • Ver HOEF, J. M., and J. K. JANSEN. 2007. Space-time zero-inflated count models of harbor seals. Environmetrics 18:697-712. 
     
  • Ver HOEF, J. M., and P. L. BOVENG. 2007. Quasi-Poisson vs. negative binomial regression: How should we model overdispersed count data? Ecology 88:2766-2772. 
     
  • Additional recent Polar Ecosystems Program publications


Posters
  • Spring Diet of Ribbon and Spotted Seals in the Bering Sea
    By:  HEATHER L. ZIEL, MICHAEL F. CAMERON, PETER L. BOVENG
    Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2008
    (2008 poster, .pdf, 1.8MB)   Online.
     
  • Densities of Seals in the Pack Ice of the Bering Sea
    By:  ERIN E. MORELAND, MICHAEL F. CAMERON, PETER L. BOVENG
    Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2008
    (2008 poster, .pdf, 309KB)   Online.
     
  • Multi-Year Aerial Surveys Using Photogrammetry to Estimate the Abundance of Harbor Seals in Glacial Ice Habitats
    By:  LUCIANA O. SANTOS, MICHAEL F. CAMERON, JOHN L. BENGTSON, PETER L. BOVENG
    Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2008
    (2008 poster, .pdf, 1.84MB)   Online.
     
  • One Dot at a Time: Counting Alaska’s Harbor Seals
    By:  KYMBERLY M. YANO, JOSH M. LONDON, RAY B. OUTLAW
    Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2008
    (2008 poster, .pdf, 3.66MB)   Online.
     
  • Morphometry of Three Ice-associated Seal Species in the Bering and Chukchi Seas
    By:  SHAWN P. DAHLE, MICHAEL F. CAMERON, PETER L. BOVENG
    Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2008
    (2008 poster, .pdf, 3.31M)   Online.
     
  • Spatial Segregation of Nursing Harbor Seals Hauled Out on Glacial Ice
    By:  GAVIN M. BRADY, JOHN K. JANSEN, SHAWN P. DAHLE
    Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2008
    (2008 poster, .pdf, 2.89MB)   Online.
     
  • Seasonal Movements of Harbor Seals Related to Sex and Age Class
    By:  JOSH M. LONDON, PETER L. BOVENG, DEVIN S. JOHNSON, JAY M. Ver HOEF
    Conference:  Biology of Marine Mammals 17th Biennial Conf., Society for Marine Mammalogy, Cape Town, South Africa, Nov/Dec 2007
    (2007 poster, .pdf, 3.73MB)   Online.
     
  • Strong Seasonal Dynamics of Harbor Seals in Cook Inlet, Alaska
    By:  PETER BOVENG, JOSH LONDON, JAY Ver HOEF, ROBERT MONTGOMERY
    Conference:  Biology of Marine Mammals 17th Biennial Conf., Society for Marine Mammalogy, Cape Town, South Africa, Nov/Dec 2007
    (2007 poster, .pdf, 4.59MB)   Online.
     
  • Additional recent Polar Ecosystems Program poster presentations
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