New Trip Report: Scotland -> Spitsbergen

Hello Dominic,

Nice to read your trip report! As we discussed on board, I am now convinced that all seals that we saw on the packice near Greenland were either ringed seals or hooded seals. I got some decent shots of boths species and I think every seal we doubted on was in fact a hooded seal (all juveniles). The strange thing is that some had brown backs and others more silvery blue. You can find the photos here: https://observation.org/user/photos/22414?groep=2&sex=0&z=0&q=&from=2013-07-05&to=2018-07-05&maand=0&jaar=0&seasons=0&exo_not=0&exo_only=0&sure=0&stars=0&hidden=0&prov=0&validatie=B&sort=date&type_foto=0

Is this the right place to ask other peoples opinion on the issue as well? Or is there a forum topic for stuff like this (I am new to mammalwatching.com)

Kind regards,
Daan

Thanks Jon,

I hope that people here can confirm my ID’s on juvenile hooded seals. We saw the more “classic” ones with blue backs (photos in this link): https://observation.org/waarneming/view/157691462

and quite a few with more brown on the back. These individuals were consistantly larger, so I suspect the colour is linked to the age of the seals: https://observation.org/waarneming/view/157691468

Cheers!