Arctic Biodiversity Climate change Whales and seals

Weather Effects on the Haul-Out Behaviour of Ringed Seals in the Amundsen Gulf

Ward, L., Loosen, A., Barbosa, M., Chartier, M., Nicholls, C., Olokhaktomiut Hunters and Trappers Committee., Juanes, F., Halliday, W. & Insley, S.

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Key points

• Ringed seals depend on sea ice as a platform to feed, rest, and raise pups. Previous studies have shown that warm, calm conditions increase the probability that ringed seals will haul-out on the sea ice.
• Such studies would typically be conducted by tagging individual seals. We used camera traps on the sea ice to photograph a wider array of individuals (e.g., males and females, a variety of ages) that can often be biased in tagging studies.
• Our study found that at temperatures above -4.3°C and wind speeds below 20 km/h, there was a greater than 50% probability of a seal haul-out occurring.
• The weather thresholds we quantified can be used to correct for systematic biases in population monitoring surveys such as aerial surveys and improve estimates of seal density and abundance.

Abstract

Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) use sea ice year-round in the Arctic as a platform for giving birth, raising young and moulting. Arctic ringed seal population assessments are typically conducted by aerial surveys flown in the spring, when many seals haul out. However, many factors can influence whether a seal is hauled out on the ice and available for detection. Understanding the environmental factors that impact ringed seal haul-out behaviour will reduce bias in aerial surveys. We deployed camera traps near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada in mid-May 2023, 2024 and 2025 facing open water leads in the sea ice to document haul-out behaviour of ringed seals under varying weather conditions. We used generalized additive mixed models to analyse the presence/absence and number of ringed seals hauled out. We found that high temperatures (> −4.3°C), low wind speeds (< 20 km/h), and high barometric pressure systems (101.4–101.8 kPa) increased the probability and number of ringed seals hauling out. We also found that haul-outs occurred at lower temperatures under conditions of low and moderate wind speeds, and that the number of seals hauled out increased at lower temperatures at low wind speeds. We identify specific ‘ideal weather’ parameters for aerial surveys, which will reduce availability bias when calculating density and abundance estimates.

Recommended citation

Ward, L., Loosen, A., Barbosa, M., Chartier, M., Nicholls, C., Olokhaktomiut Hunters and Trappers Committee., Juanes, F., Halliday, W. & Insley, S. (2026). Weather Effects on the Haul-Out Behaviour of Ringed Seals in the Amundsen Gulf. Marine Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.70114