Academic competition saves seal pups
Although Russia introduced a ban on the catch of harp seals in the White Sea in 2009, population numbers have
continued to decline. Available expanses of thick sea ice, a main factor in seal pup survival, are under threat from
warming seas and icebreaking vessels. Leveraging high-resolution satellite imagery, a team of students are helping
icebreaking ships navigate around seal whelping grounds.
To maintain key transit routes through the White Sea, icebreakers clear shipping routes
through ice fields each November through May. The vessels cannot change course quickly and
only with advance notice of whelping ground locations, direction, and speed of ice dri can
routes be planned to avoid whelping grounds. As part of a competition organized by LoReTT
Engineering Company, students were taught to use satellite imagery to identify whelping
grounds, map surrounding ice, and calculate ice dri to help icebreakers plan and navigate
clear routes.
ACADEMIC COMPETITION
SAVES SEAL PUPS
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PROTECTING ICE FOR WHELPING
Around February and March each year, harp seal
females gather on expanses of driing pack ice, or
whelping grounds, to birth and nurse their pups.
Without expanses of thick, solid ice, pups drown
or are crushed by broken-up chunks of ice. With
the decline of ice cover expected to continue,
the survival rate of pups is under serious threat.
Taking action to monitor and protect ice expanses
for whelping is critical for population recovery.
case study
Harp seal whelping grounds seen from Maxar's GeoEye-1
