Monday, February 2, 2015

Whales and now seals...for free!

Hi Sea Fans!

Remember my visit to WhaleNet with Michael?  Well, there's some great news from Wheelock College. They tagged a Gray Seal on the 19th of January and you can now follow it on their website (http://whale.wheelock.edu/whalenet-stuff/Stop39395-15/) FOR FREE!

Marine mammal researchers are capturing, tagging, sampling, and releasing weaned gray seal pups on islands near Cape Cod and Nantucket. They hope to learn more about the influenza A virus in the gray seal population and fill out a picture of pup movements.  They'll be gathering samples that will teach us more about their health, ecology (ecology = the study of the relationships between living things and their environment), and habitat use (how they move around and what they do in their home area).   Information that they get from the tags will also be used to find out how many males, females, young, sub-adults and adults there are. 

So why not use this pup for your next biology project?  Should be interesting what they find out about this 35kg beauty!

Have a great week Sea Fans!
Chat soon.
Cheers
Abby
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