. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1993 Lavigueur and Hammill: Movements of Grey Seals 337. 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 58 56 54 52 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 58 56 54 52 Figure 5. Proportions of bounty kills in the Gulf of St. lawrence and tag recoveries (data in brackets) of Grey Seal adults in each season. Overall totals (N) are given for each season. Gulf (Newport; Cap Gaspe) in May and the Anticosti Island area in May. Discussion The use of questionnaires, bounty and tag returns to describe Grey Seal distribution are subject to several biases. One difficulty is that fishermen are often unable to identif
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1993 Lavigueur and Hammill: Movements of Grey Seals 337. 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 58 56 54 52 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 58 56 54 52 Figure 5. Proportions of bounty kills in the Gulf of St. lawrence and tag recoveries (data in brackets) of Grey Seal adults in each season. Overall totals (N) are given for each season. Gulf (Newport; Cap Gaspe) in May and the Anticosti Island area in May. Discussion The use of questionnaires, bounty and tag returns to describe Grey Seal distribution are subject to several biases. One difficulty is that fishermen are often unable to identify seals to species, particularly in the Anticosti Island area (Newson 1937). The paucity of Grey Seal sightings in winter likely reflects minimal fishing activity due to the presence of ice rather than the absence of Grey Seals. Information gained from bounty and tag returns are also affected by changes in hunting activity, public knowledge of the bounty pro- gram and legal restrictions on hunting marine mam- mals, particularly in the United States (Stobo et al. 1990). Within the Gulf of St. Lawrence, hunting of Grey Seals is not permitted between May and September in the upper Estuary and in the southern Gulf between December and the end of March. The high proportion of individuals tagged on Sable Island in the recoveries from the Gulf reflects the greater number of tags applied on Sable Island during the same period. The decline in the number of bounty returns with the exception of 1987, likely reflects decreased interest in the bounty program as hunter's costs increased between 1979 and 1990, but the size of the reward remained unchanged. In 1987, 40% (N=319) of the jaws submitted under the boun- ty program came from a March hunt primarily for pups (N=297) in the southern Gulf. We suggest that ice breakup in that spring was delayed, permitting hunters to have greater access to seals than normally possible, similar to the conditions that arose during the spring of 1989 (cf. M
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