Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) have been widely studied in the Pacific Northwest for over 60 y (Scheffer and Slipp 1944; Calambokidis and others 1979; Olesiuk and others 1990; Jeffries and others 2003). In the inland waters of Washington State, Harbor Seals are the most abundant and extensively distributed pinniped, numbering approximately 15,000 individuals and thought to be nearing carrying ca...

Sealing log books from 75 out of 79 commercial harvest cruises carried out between 1972 and 1994 in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia, were analyzed to describe spatial and temporal allocation of ice-associated seal harvest effort, species composition of catches, total harvest rates, and related parameters for species including ringed (Pusa hispida), ribbon (Histriophoca fasciata), bearded (Erignathus...

The Pinnipedia includes marine carnivores that share a single common evolutionary origin within arctoid carnivores 25–27 Ma in the North Pacific (Berta & Adam, 2001). Three major groups of pinnipeds are recognized: the Phocidae (true seals), the Otariidae (fur seals and sea lions) and the Odobenidae (walruses). Phocid seals, the focus of this study, are typically divided into two subfamilies th...

Seals have adapted to the high heat transfer coefficient in the aquatic environment by effective thermal insulation of the body core. While swimming and diving, excess metabolic heat is supposed to be dissipated mainly over the sparsely insulated body appendages, whereas the location of main heat sinks in hauled-out seals remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate thermal windows on the trunk of har...

Concentrations of alternative flame retardants and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were analyzed in ringed seal (Phoca hispida) blubber collected across the Canadian Arctic during subsistence hunts between 1998 and 2013. More than 80% of sampled animals were females and juvenile males. The highest mean ΣPBDE concentrations (sum of 13 congeners) were found in seals from Nain (Nunatsiavut)...

For over 15 years now, the efficiency and reliability of centrifugal compressors have been enhanced by the application of thermoplastic materials to the eye, shaft, and balance piston labyrinth seals. Traditionally these seals have been manufactured from metallic materials and have required relatively large clearances for reliability reasons. By upgrading to carefully selected engineered thermo...

Since the Sassanid era, many reliefs and seals have left and by reviewing their designs, the mythical and religious attitudes of those people can be understood. The purpose of this article is to decode and interpret the symbolic paintings and to review and study the myths, concepts, and religious rituals of this period. The question is that what the divine and human origin of the symbolic paint...

Glacier Bay National Park had one of the largest breeding aggregations of harbor seals in Alaska, and it is functionally the only marine reserve for harbor seals in Alaska; yet, numbers of seals in the Bay are declining rapidly. Understanding why seals in Glacier Bay are declining may clarify their minimal habitat needs. We estimated population trends using models that controlled for environmen...