OTN Canada Sable Island Grey Seal Bioprobes - Tag Release Metadata

This is the OBIS extraction of the OTN Canada Sable Island Grey Seal Bioprobes project, consisting only of the release tagging metadata. i.e. the locations and dates of tagged animal release. If readers are interested in the full source dataset they should refer to the OTN web site (members.oceantrack.org). Abstract: Objectives are to better understand the ecological function of large marine carnivores in continental-shelf ecosystems, using grey seals as our model species and novel acoustic technology developed for OTN. There are two components: 1) spatial and temporal patterns of prey encounters by a mobile, large marine predator, and 2) predator movements and foraging distribution in relation to fine- and meso- scale seasonal oceanography in eastern Canada. The first study will contribute to science advice on the impact of pinniped predation on the dynamics of prey populations of commercial or conservation importance. The second study seeks to understand the oceanographic features that grey seals may use to condition the way they search the environment for food and in turn predict how climate variability and long-term change may affect upper-trophic level predators and alter their impact on continental shelf ecosystems.