Grey Seal Diet Composition from Offshore Colonies in the Northwest Atlantic, 2015-2023

496 grey seals were sampled across three regions of the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence between 2015 and 2023. The dataset, created by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, contains taxonomic prey counts, otolith measurements, and seal metadata to characterize diet and support ecosystem-based fisheries management.

Use Cases

• Compare seal diet composition between offshore and coastal colonies based on region and season metadata
• Estimate prey biomass consumption based on otolith length measurements
• Analyze dietary variability based on seal age and sex metadata
• Assess interactions with commercially important fish species based on identified prey taxonomic groups

Strengths

• Contains data from 496 sampled grey seals
• Covers a temporal range from 2015 to 2023
• Includes correction factors for digestion bias in prey counts
• Provides metadata on seal age, sex, region, year, and season

Limitations

• Row count for the main data tables is unknown
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Samples collected during scientific and commercial harvesting activities; prey identified via otolith analysis from digestive tracts.

Time Range

2015 to 2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-20 17:12:22.655210

Geography

Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence (Magdalen Islands, Miramichi Bay, Northumberland Strait)