Here’s a report of a cruise that I would love to do someday, plus a few days in Scotland beforehand.
Scotland-Spitsbergen, 2018: Dominique Brugiere, 16 days and 16 species on the cruise including Hooded Seals, Walrus and Bottlenose Whales, plus another 12 species in Scotland.
Jon
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
Hi Daan. Yes this is as good a place as any to post pictures and ask opinions. Look forward to seeing them.
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!