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
- U.S.-Russia Collaborative Ice Seal Survey, April-May 2012
- Seal Disease Outbreak in Arctic - Updated Nov 2011
- Bering Sea Research Cruise '09 on the McArthur II
- UAS Test Flights, NOAA Oscar Dyson
- Ice Seal Breeding Ecology Cruise '08, NOAA Oscar Dyson
- Ice Seal Abundance Survey '08, USCG Polar Sea
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Accounting for Species Identification Errors from Aerial Surveys of Ice-associated Seals
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Bering Okhotsk Seal Surveys (BOSS): Joint U.S.-Russian Aerial Surveys
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U.S. and Russia Collaborate to Study Ice Seals
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Habitat Use and Seasonal Movements of Adult Bearded Seals in Kotzebue Sound, Alaska
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Researchers from the Polar Ecosystems Program Census Harbor Seals Along Coastal Alaska
- HUNT, G. L., A. L. BLANCHARD, P. BOVENG, P. DALPADADO, K. F. DRINKWATER, L. EISNER, R. R. HOPCROFT, K. M. KOVACS, B. L. NORCROSS, P. RENAUD, M. REIGSTAD, M. RENNER, H. R. SKJOLDAL, A. WHITEHOUSE, and R. A. WOODGATE.
2013. The Barents and Chukchi seas: Comparison of two Arctic shelf ecosystems. J. Mar. Sys. 109-110:43-68.
- TOWELL, R. G., R. R. REAM, J. T. STERLING, M. WILLIAMS, and J. L. BENGTSON.
2012. Population assessment of northern fur seals on the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, 2010-2011, p.8-25. In J. W. Testa (editor), Fur Seal Investigations, 2010-2011. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-AFSC-241.
- HIGGS, M. D., and J. M. Ver HOEF.
2012. Discretized and aggregated: Modeling dive depth of harbor seals from ordered categorical data with temporal autocorrelation. Biometrics 68:965-974.
- Ver HOEF, J.
2012. Model-assisted sampling, p. 627-629. In A.-H. El-Shaarawi, and W. Piegorsch (editors), Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK.
- Ver HOEF, J.
2012. Demographic stochastic models, p. 1627-1628. In A.-H. El-Shaarawi, and W. Piegorsch (editors), Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK.
- Ver HOEF, J.
2012. Biogeography, p. 214-216. In A.-H. El-Shaarawi, and W. Piegorsch (editors), Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK.
- Ver HOEF, J.
2012. Biodiversity, p. 216-220. In A.-H. El-Shaarawi, and W. Piegorsch (editors), Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK.
- Ver HOEF, J.
2012. Aerial survey data, p. 25-28. In A.-H. El-Shaarawi, and W. Piegorsch (editors), Encyclopedia of Environmetrics, Second Edition. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK.
- Additional recent Polar Ecosystems Program publications
- Bering-Okhotsk Seal Surveys (BOSS): Joint US-Russian Aerial Surveys for Ice-Associated Seals, April – May 2012
By: MICHAEL CAMERON, VLADIMIR CHERNOOK
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
(2013 poster, .pdf, 5.33 MB) Online.
- Ice-Associated Seal Detection and Identification from the 2012 Bering-Okhotsk Seal Surveys (BOSS)
By: ERIN MORELAND, BRETT McCLINTOCK, MICHAEL CAMERON, PETER BOVENG
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
(2013 poster, .pdf, 2.26 MB) Online.
- Will Global Warming Result in Habitat Gains for Ice-breeding Bearded Seals? (2012 conference)
By: SHAWN P. DAHLE, MICHAEL F. CAMERON, PETER L. BOVENG
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2012
(2012 poster, .pdf, 3.59 MB) Online.
- Synoptic Aerial Surveys and Abundance Estimates for Ice-associated Seals in US and Russian Waters
By: MICHAEL CAMERON, PETER BOVENG, ERIN MORELAND, JAY Ver HOEF, VLADIMIR CHERNOOK
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2012
(2012 poster, .pdf, 6.45 MB) Online.
- Hematology Values, Dive Characteristics and Food Habits of Ribbon and Spotted Seals in the Bering Sea
By: HEATHER ZIEL, JOSH LONDON, MICHAEL CAMERON, PETER BOVENG
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2012
(2012 poster, .pdf, 9.77 MB) Online.
- Estimating Productivity and Pup Growth Using Aerial Imagery of Harbor Seals on Ice
By: JOHN JANSEN, JAY Ver HOEF, GAVIN BRADY, SHAWN DAHLE, PETER BOVENG
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2012
(2012 poster, .pdf, 7.31 MB) Online.
- Seasonal Migration of Bearded Seals Between Intensive Foraging Patches Preference and Breeding Site Fidelity
By: PETER BOVENG, MICHAEL CAMERON, JOHN GOODWIN, ALEX WHITING
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2012
(2012 poster, .pdf, 756 KB) Online.
- A General Modeling Framework for Animal Movement in Discrete Time Using Multi-State Random Walks
By: BRETT T. McCLINTOCK, RUTH KING, LEN THOMAS, JASON MATTHIOPOULOS, BERNIE J. McCONNELL, JUAN M. MORALES
Conference: Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2012
(2012 poster, .pdf, 16.43 MB) Online.
- Additional recent Polar Ecosystems Program poster presentations