CHATHAM, Mass., — June 11, 2013 — Scientists plan to tag seven adult gray seals on Cape Cod this week as part of an effort to learn more about the species.
Gordon Waring, the National Marine Fisheries Service seal expert and chief scientist for the project, says the first-of-a-kind program in Atlantic waters will help scientists answer questions they share with local residents and fishermen alike. They aim to tag the seals Wednesday through Friday off Chatham and Wellfleet.
‘‘We hope it will give us a better understanding of the ecology of gray seals in the Cape Cod area,’’ Waring told the Cape Cod Times
Waring hopes the tagging data will reveal where adult seals go when they leave the beach, how deep they dive, what they feed on and whether they are shuttling back and forth between the large Canadian seal colonies off Nova Scotia or north in the St. Lawrence River.
Read the full story by the Associated Press at The Boston Globe