Greenlandic seals collect data Published 03.12.2020

This week Nature Geoscience published an article that focus on the interaction between the ocean and the ice. The article is partly based on data collected by Greenlandic seals.

Hunters from Kulusuk and Tasiilaq, East Greenland, have in cooperation with scientist Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid, GINR, and scientists from DFO (Departement of Fisheries and Ocean), Canada, caught hooded seals in the Tasiilaq area and attached satellite transmitters to their back.

The purpose of the study was to study the diving habits and migration pattern of the hooded seal, but the transmitters also collected the water temperature down through the water column.

The study showed that the juvenile hooded seals stay all year in the Tasiilaq area, while the adults migrate to breeding locations in Canada in winter. Because the juvenile stay they collected a whole years cycle of data from an area with glaciers, which has withdrawn quite rapidly. So the hooded seal has turned out very useful for the researchers, who wouldn´t be able to collect this type of data in a traditional way.

Read the abstract: Rapid circulation of warm subtropical waters in a major glacial fjord in East Greenland, Nature Geoscience

Hunters from Kulusuk participated in the capture of hooded seals Photo: Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid.