Ice Seal Tracking Maps Archive

12/350/2019 – 12/364/2019

Requested Tracking Map
From 16 to 30 December, we received locations for 1 bearded, 5 ringed, and 8 spotted seals. The adult bearded seal (BS19-01-M, red square) continued to make localized movements near Utqiaġvik and Barrow Canyon. All five ringed seals were in heavy ice in the Chukchi Sea. As sea ice advanced south, the spotted seals tagged in Dease Inlet during September 2019 also moved south. During this period, 5 of the 7 spotted seals tagged moved into the Bering Sea. One of the 2 spotted seals remaining in the Chukchi Sea, SS19-05-M (purple circle), moved into the southern Chukchi Sea. Spotted seal SS18-02-M (brown circle), tagged near Scammon Bay in 2018, is still in the Bering Sea and is hauling out on sea ice between the mouth of the Yukon River and St. Lawrence Island. Sea ice data are courtesy of the U.S. National Ice Center, dated 30 December 2019 (http://www.natice.noaa.gov/products/daily_products.html).

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