looduskalender.ee

 Ready for the research road

 

We have been holding our breath while following what the five ringed seals tagged by us in the Gulf of Finland are doing. They are provided with telephones that call us at home at suitable occasions, telling us about the doings of the seals. Since technology at times has its own understanding of the task all calls don’t reach us in an understandable state. In the case of two of them who have older generation mobiles the information material needs additional encoding but from three seals information arrives on an almost daily basis. 

 

Initially it shows that the ringed seals of the Gulf of Finland are quite stationary at this time and go fishing in the sea close to home. With the cooling of the weather and growing fat reserves there is a growing desire simply to doze on a rock and husband what has been gathered in summer. It is understandable – the approaching winter is a severe season at sea and in spring exhausting weeks on the birthing ice are waiting. 

 

Ringed seals at  shallows in the Gulf of Finland (red marks show movements of female seal)