Tomhawke's Blog
Are seals in the Antarctic becoming endangered?
Posted By: tomhawke, Dr. Hawke on Friday, November 11, 2005
Leanna from SPBS posted a great question in her blog.
I was reading some of the useful links you posted under "Polar Science Reasearch And Investigations" and I read that there are 800 000 Weddell seals living in the Antarctic, but unfortunately the population was decreasing, I also read that there are 4 other types of seals living there too. So I was wondering, Which of the 5 types of seals are most endangered in the Antarctic? Why are they most endangered? Should we be concerned?
That was an excellent question. While the population of Weddell seals has decreased slightly in the past few years, it is not something to be concerned with. It is actually just the normal fluctuations that occur in a wild population. As you mentioned there are five major species of seals in the Antarctic and all them have quite healthy populations. In fact that is part of a long term study to try to understand why the southern species are so healthy. Thank you for your question.
Take care,
Dr. Shane Kanatous
(Principal Investigator for the Weddell Seal Project)
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