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Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Reports
Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Reports

Formal report series, containing results of research and monitoring carried out by Marine Scotland Science

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UK Open Government Licence (OGL)

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Determining the water column usage by seals in the Brims lease site

Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Vol 8 No 22

The report describes how adult harbour seals and grey seal pups use the water column within the Brims lease site. Data used in the report are presented for download.

doi: 
10.7489/2008-1
Citation: 
C Evers, C Blight, D Thompson, J Onoufriou and G Hastie (2017) Determining the water column usage by seals in the Brims lease site. Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Vol 8 No 22, 30pp. DOI: 10.7489/2008-1

Data and Resources

FieldValue
Publisher
Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Reports
Marine Planning
Modified
2017-11-29
Release Date
2017-11-29
Identifier
979637aa-e4a6-4d8f-8afc-b164da21d326
Spatial / Geographical Coverage Location
Scotland
Temporal Coverage
2010-12-12 to 2017-05-01
License
UK Open Government Licence (OGL)
Data Dictionary
  1. Telemetry data from 12 adult harbour seals and seven grey seal pups diving within the Brims lease site were analysed to extract descriptors of dive behaviour. 2. Dive data were summarised to provide estimates of the proportion of time seals spent at different depths relative to the sea surface and relative to the seafloor. In addition to estimates of the proportion of time at depth, the number of times seals transited through different depth bins relative to the sea surface and sea floor was also determined. 3. Water depths at dive locations were estimated from high resolution bathymetry data corrected for tide height at that time and place. 4. Harbour seals spent approximately 31 % of their time at intermediate depths between 10 m to 25 m from the surface, with a secondary but less pronounced peak between 75 m and 80 m from the surface. When expressed as a distance from the seafloor, harbour seals spent the highest proportion of time within 5 m of the seafloor (mean = 0.16; 95 % CIs: 0.04-0.46) with a secondary peak between 65 m and 70 m from the seafloor (mean = 0.12; 95 % CIs: 0.03-0.26) indicating a significant amount of mid water swimming by harbour seals at this site. Harbour seals spent on average 12.8 % of their time in the band between 5 m and 25 m above the sea floor. 5. For grey seal pups, the proportion of time spent in depth bands decreases monotonically with depth and the amount of time spent close to the sea floor was lower than in harbour seals. Grey seal pups spent on average 6.5 % of their time in the band between 5 m and 25 m above the sea floor. 6. Harbour seals in the Brims site entered or transited through the zone between 5 m and 25 m from the sea floor on approximately 27 % of dives. Grey seal pups entered the depth bands closest to the seafloor less frequently than did the harbour seals.
Contact Name
Marine Scotland Science
Contact Email
marinescotland@gov.scot
Public Access Level
Public