Seal population still growing, experts say

ORONO – Two researchers who conducted a census of the New England harbor seal population have found that there are nearly 100,000 of the animals along the coast from Maine to Connecticut.

The population estimate comes from an analysis of data gathered in aerial surveys last year by University of Maine professor James Gilbert and Gordon Waring of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, Mass.

The survey took place in May and June 2001 when scientists flew over islands and ledges in Maine’s coastal waters during a time of the year when harbor seals are at the northern end of their range.

Captured on 231 rolls of film were 38,011 harbor seals, which compares to 31,000 the last time they were counted in 1997.

This time, researchers took it one step further by estimating the total harbor seal population, including those that escaped being counted because they were in the water when the photos were taken.

The scientists attached radios to 19 harbor seals and monitored the proportion of those tagged animals that were in the water when the photos were taken. Using that information, the scientists made an estimate of 99,340 animals, they said.

The continued growth of the harbor seal population is good news for seal lovers and seal watch cruise companies. But it’s not so good for fishermen, who long have cursed seals as nuisances.

Until 1905, the state paid a $1 bounty on harbor seals to reduce their populations. By the early 1900s, the seal population was nearly exterminated along some parts of the Maine coast – with no noticeable effect on fish catches.

Maine lifted the bounty in 1905, but Massachusetts retained its until 1968, and Canada had a bounty until 1976. Thanks to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which made it illegal to kill seals, the numbers began growing in earnest. By 1981, there were 10,540 seals, and the numbers have been growing ever since.