While working on data yesterday morning, we received a call at Staff Quarters from a local who reported seeing a ribbon seal near West Landing. A ribbon seal!? We of course immediately stopped what we were doing and jumped in the truck to investigate. Although they range throughout the Bering Sea, ribbon seals almost never haul out on land. They are strongly associated with the pack ice during the breeding and molting seasons from March to July, and spend the rest of the year far out to sea. Ribbon seals have the capacity to reach depths of over 2,000 ft, possibly aided by two unique air sacks under the flanking ribbons, that might serve as a mechanism for buoyancy control and oxygen storage. With this in mind, seeing a ribbon seal on St. Paul is a rare once in a lifetime occurrence. We combed the harbor with no sign of a ribbon. On a whim, Greg decided to give Salt Lagoon a look, and sure enough there it was, hauled out on an exposed mud flat. This animal remained in the same spot all day, and I managed to army crawl to the edge of the grass line to snap a few photos at sunset.
Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + 1.4x, ISO-800 f/5.6 @ 1/640 sec.
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