Below is the data for "Assateague" the hooded seal released by the National
Aquarium in Baltimore along with the Riverhead Foundation in Riverhead New
York. I have also attached a map of the data I have so far.
Good news and not so good news here. The seal was released on the 9th of
November from Long Island New York. The seal had been transported north to
get a head start on what should have been a long trip back to home range.
To meet up with other hooded seals along the east coast, this would mean a
trip to at least the gulf of the St. Lawrence, south of Newfoundland.
Sounds like a long trip, but we have seen animals make this trip (see hooded
seal "Jersey" in the WhaleNet archive).
After a quick trip offshore immediately after release the track swings back
to shallow coastal water and heads south. The last signal from the tag came
from just offshore of Virginia Beach, Virginia on Saturday morning (around
1500hrs GMT). Since then we have gotten no new signals.
It is possible that the loss of signals is temporary. If the seal hauled out
for long enough, the tag would shut itself down. If the seal hauled out and
rolled on the tag, signals would be blocked. In any case, we should again
begin getting signals when the tag restarts. The worry is that we have not
heard for a couple of days, and the longer the tag is silent, the less
likely it is that we will hear form it again. (the longest I have had a tag
go silent and show up again?....five days....) At this point all we can do
is wait and keep our fingers crossed....
The time that the tag shut down is roughly the time the tag was programmed
to shut down for the day, so it seems that the tag was working normally at
the time. The tag is programmed to begin transmission again at 00hrs GMT.
Whenever we loose signals from a tag, there are only three possibilities:
the attachment failed (and the tag fell off), the tag malfunctioned (and is
no longer signaling) or something happened to the seal, and the tag is no
longer coming to the surface. At this point it is a little too soon to say
what might have happened, however it is doubtful that the tag would have
simply fallen off this soon after release. The fact that the tag shut down
that close to shore makes it seem quite possible that the seal was in the
process of hauling out when the tag shut down, but we will have to wait to
see what happens from here.
Hopefully I'll be back to you with more later this week....
Keep your fingers crossed...
ge
The Data:
16292 Date : 09.11.01 07:26:44 LC : 0 IQ : 56Lat1 : 40.891N Lon1 :
72.554W
16292 Date : 09.11.01 09:59:21 LC : 1 IQ : 56Lat1 : 40.888N Lon1 :
72.520W
16292 Date : 09.11.01 11:14:12 LC : 2 IQ : 56Lat1 : 40.889N Lon1 :
72.532W
16292 Date : 09.11.01 11:41:48 LC : A IQ : 60Lat1 : 40.907N Lon1 :
72.537W
16292 Date : 09.11.01 12:08:59 LC : 1 IQ : 58Lat1 : 40.887N Lon1 :
72.529W
16292 Date : 09.11.01 16:44:32 LC : 0 IQ : 56Lat1 : 45.891N Lon1 :
98.144W
16292 Date : 10.11.01 11:00:18 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.701N Lon1 :
71.559W
16292 Date : 10.11.01 13:21:53 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.682N Lon1 :
72.235W
16292 Date : 10.11.01 16:28:50 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.770N Lon1 :
72.649W
16292 Date : 10.11.01 23:11:20 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.950N Lon1 :
72.494W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 07:03:13 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.496N Lon1 :
73.139W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 09:13:26 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.471N Lon1 :
73.159W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 10:50:14 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.477N Lon1 :
72.910W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 11:20:39 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.433N Lon1 :
73.189W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 13:01:59 LC : A IQ : 00Lat1 : 43.585N Lon1 :
83.443W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 16:14:50 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.218N Lon1 :
73.344W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 16:48:57 LC : A IQ : 06Lat1 : 40.252N Lon1 :
73.298W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 18:30:19 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.197N Lon1 :
73.454W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 20:36:29 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.155N Lon1 :
73.501W
16292 Date : 11.11.01 22:39:28 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.064N Lon1 :
73.205W
16292 Date : 12.11.01 00:24:22 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 40.295N Lon1 :
72.923W
16292 Date : 12.11.01 08:36:33 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 39.411N Lon1 :
73.642W
16292 Date : 12.11.01 10:32:12 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 39.436N Lon1 :
73.493W
16292 Date : 12.11.01 10:38:56 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 39.648N Lon1 :
74.026W
16292 Date : 12.11.01 14:19:42 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 39.609N Lon1 :
73.931W
16292 Date : 12.11.01 18:21:46 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 39.528N Lon1 :
74.232W
16292 Date : 12.11.01 22:18:05 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 39.440N Lon1 :
74.135W
16292 Date : 13.11.01 11:47:33 LC : A IQ : 00Lat1 : 39.222N Lon1 :
74.464W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 07:52:14 LC : 0 IQ : 50Lat1 : 37.732N Lon1 :
75.366W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 08:56:31 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 37.713N Lon1 :
75.405W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 09:50:58 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 37.711N Lon1 :
75.419W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 10:36:31 LC : A IQ : 08Lat1 : 37.669N Lon1 :
75.425W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 11:08:12 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 37.621N Lon1 :
75.467W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 11:32:51 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 37.587N Lon1 :
75.344W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 12:47:18 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 37.593N Lon1 :
75.469W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 16:48:08 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 37.476N Lon1 :
75.605W
16292 Date : 16.11.01 17:39:26 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 37.455N Lon1 :
75.527W
16292 Date : 17.11.01 07:42:21 LC : A IQ : 00Lat1 : 37.042N Lon1 :
75.810W
16292 Date : 17.11.01 09:37:49 LC : A IQ : 08Lat1 : 37.009N Lon1 :
75.849W
16292 Date : 17.11.01 10:13:08 LC : 0 IQ : 58Lat1 : 36.987N Lon1 :
75.859W
16292 Date : 17.11.01 11:18:05 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 36.974N Lon1 :
75.807W
16292 Date : 17.11.01 11:55:10 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 36.957N Lon1 :
75.870W
16292 Date : 17.11.01 14:04:42 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 36.904N Lon1 :
75.889W
16292 Date : 17.11.01 14:54:57 LC : B IQ : 00Lat1 : 36.883N Lon1 :
75.982W
Greg Early
Senior Scientist for Field Research
Marine Environmental Research Institute (MERI)
PO Box 1652
55 Main Street
Blue Hill, ME 04614
tel.: 207-374-2135 ex 15
fax: 207-374-2931
email: GregEarly@downeast.net
web: www.meriresearch.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Nov 20 2001 - 13:10:36 EST