Harp seals

Our lab has collaborated with other scientists to understand harp seal diet and the impacts they may have on other species in the Newfoundland and Labrador marine ecosystems. This collaborative research has indicated that harp seals diet is primarily composed of Arctic, Atlantic, and Greenland cod, capelin, herring, and shrimp but that the relative contributions of these species to seal diet has varied across space and time. Further, ecosystem models indicate that seal predation mortality has been higher than fishing mortality for some of these species in recent years.