Albinistic common seals (Phoca vitulina) and melanistic grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) rehabilitated in the Netherlands

2010 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nynke Osinga ◽  
Pieter 't Hart ◽  
Pieter van Voorst Vader
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Phoca Vitulina ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Halichoerus Grypus ◽  
Normal Behaviour ◽  
Delta Area ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Photophobic Reaction

AbstractThe Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre (SRRC) in Pieterburen, The Netherlands, rehabilitates seals from the waters of the Wadden Sea, North Sea and Southwest Delta area. Incidental observations of albinism and melanism in common and grey seals are known from countries surrounding the North Sea. However, observations on colour aberrations have not been systematically recorded. To obtain the frequency of occurrence of these colour aberrations, we analysed data of all seals admitted to our centre over the past 38 years. In the period 1971-2008, 3000 common seals (Phoca vitulina) were rehabilitated, as well as 1200 grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). A total of five albinistic common seals and four melanistic grey seals were identified. This results in an estimated incidence of albinism in common seals of approximately 1/600, and of melanism in grey seals of approximately 1/300. The seals displayed normal behaviour, although in the albinistic animals, a photophobic reaction was observed in daylight.

Seals in Orkney

1985 ◽  
Vol 87 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernie McConnell
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Phoca Vitulina ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Halichoerus Grypus ◽  
Grey Seal ◽  
Total Population Size ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Domestic Use

SynopsisGrey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and common seals (Phoca vitulina) both occur in Orcadian waters. In previous centuries they formed an important resource for both domestic use and export.Annual grey seal pup production has more than doubled since 1964. Productivity on individual islands is influenced by human activity. Total population size is estimated to have risen from around 10,000 in 1964 to around 20,000 in 1982 despite a management policy of culling originally intended to stop population growth. Grey seals tagged in Orkney have been recovered around most parts of the North Sea, Norway, the Faeroes and south to Ireland.Considerably less is known about the biology of common seals in Orkney. A boat survey in 1979 counted 2653 adults and 420 pups.

scholarly journals Identification and real-time PCR quantification of Phocine distemper virus from two colonies of Scottish grey seals in 2002

2005 ◽  
Vol 86 (9) ◽  
pp. 2563-2567 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Hammond ◽  
Patrick P. Pomeroy ◽  
Ailsa J. Hall ◽  
Valerie J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Phoca Vitulina ◽  
Primary Site ◽  
Halichoerus Grypus ◽  
Grey Seal ◽  
Acute Effects ◽  
The North ◽  
Phocine Distemper Virus ◽  
The North Sea

The North Sea European harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population has endured two phocine distemper virus (PDV) epidemics in 1988 and 2002. The grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) is a sympatric seal species that shows little or no mortality from PDV. Two Scottish grey seal breeding colonies were sampled for evidence of PDV infection approximately 2 months after the peak of the 2002 epidemic. In both colonies, a proportion of mothers (13/109) and pups (6/84) tested positive for PDV in their leukocytes. All infected animals were asymptomatic and completed the breeding season successfully. These results illustrate that grey seals come into contact with infectious seals and can become infected themselves without experiencing acute effects. In some seals the virus is able to replicate from the primary site of infection. This study provides evidence that grey seals may have an active role in the spread of PDV during an epidemic.

Blame the Barbarians

2021 ◽  
pp. 39-82
Author(s):  
Arika Okrent ◽  
Sean O’Neill
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Old English ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
The North ◽  
The People ◽  
Latin Language ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Germanic Languages ◽  
Over Time

This chapter tells the story of how English got to be the weird way it is, which begins with the Germanic languages and the barbarians who spoke them. During the 5th century, an assortment of them poured across the North Sea, from what is today Denmark, the Netherlands, and Northern Germany, and conquered most of England. After about a century of the Germanic tribes taking over and settling in, the Romans returned. This time it was not soldiers but missionaries who arrived. The monks who came to convert the island to Christianity brought their Latin language with them, and they also brought the Latin alphabet. They set about translating religious texts into the language of the people they encountered, a language that by this time had coalesced into something that was Old English. However, there is another group of barbarians to blame: the Vikings. Their language was similar enough to Old English that they could communicate with the Anglo-Saxons without too much difficulty, and over time their own way of speaking mixed into the surrounding language, leaving vocabulary and expressions behind that do not quite fit the rest of the pattern at the old Germanic layer.

scholarly journals STABILITY PARAMETERS OF WESTERN SCHELDT ESTUARY

1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (19) ◽  
pp. 205 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. De Jong ◽  
F. Gerritsen
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Scheldt Estuary ◽  
Stability Parameters ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The City

The Western Scheldt is a major estuary in the Southern part of The Netherlands and the Northern part of Belgium. It is an important navigational route connecting the city of Antwerp with the North Sea. At the entrance Vlissingen is a major Dutch port.

scholarly journals THE DUTCH PROGRAM OF INVESTIGATIONS ON STORM SURGES IN THE NORTH SEA

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
J. B. Schijf
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Wind Effects ◽  
Shallow Sea ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
North Western

The North Sea is a shallow sea and therefore it is very sensitive to wind effects. As a result the water levels along the coasts are, in addition to the tidal oscillations subject to a considerable wind setup and exceptionally severe gales throughout history have been accompanied by inundations of the low-lying regions bordering the North Sea, in particular its southern part. No stretch of coast has suffered more than that belonging to the Netherlands and the adjacent parts of Belgium and North Western Germany. Several factors combine to bestow on us this doubtful privilege.

Cannibalism by a Male Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) in the North Sea

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Bishop ◽  
Joseph Onoufriou ◽  
Simon Moss ◽  
Paddy P. Pomeroy ◽  
Sean D. Twiss
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Halichoerus Grypus ◽  
Grey Seal ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea

The Storm, 1618–49

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-116
Author(s):  
Jonathan Scott
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Louis Xiv ◽  
Military Alliance ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
North Western

This chapter discusses the Thirty Years' War. It shows that, when the Scots and then the English Protestants took up arms between 1638 and 1642 they followed the Dutch in committing to the defence of their Reformation by force. This was the first in a series of conflicts which did not secure Protestantism in England until 1689, or Calvinism in Scotland until 1707. These struggles on both sides of the North Sea were intertwined, beginning with a Scots rebellion supported by soldiers returning from the Netherlands and elsewhere, and ultimately hinging upon a Dutch invasion of England in 1688–9. In the long term, Reformation could only be defended in North-Western Europe by a multinational (and cross-confessional) military alliance against Louis XIV and James II.

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