Harp seal
Harp seals are closely related to the harbour seal, however they do not live in the North Sea. A lost seal is only occasionally spotted along the Dutch coast. The males have a harp shaped spot on their back. Females and young have a less obvious pattern of black or brown spots. Both sexes can grow to 1.70 meters long and weigh 130 kilograms. They can live 30-35 years old. Harp seals are hunted in abundance in Norway and Canada.
Canadian hunters employ different terms for harp seals, depending upon their age. When they are born, they have a yellowish fur which turns totally white after several days. That is why they are first called yellow-coats and later white-coats. Between 3 to 4 weeks, the juvenile loses its white fur and is called a ragged jacket. When it has totally molted after 4 weeks of age, it is called a beater. At the age of 14 months, it gets large spots and is then called a bedlamer. Only after 4 years or older, when the animal is sexually mature, does the seal get its adult color of silver-grey with dark harp marks, and is then called a spotted harp.
Distrubution harp seal
Beaching
Beached harp seal at the Ecomare rehabilitation centre
From 1987 to 1991, a notably large amount of harp seals stranded along the Dutch, German, Danish and northern French coasts. There were 35 reports all together. Practically all of the reports came in March or April. The Dutch strandings are shown in the table below. Such an invasion also took place in the years 1901-1903, according to P. van Bree from the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam. A greater number of adult harp seals than normal swam south in those years as well. In between these invasions, there has been no single report of a stranded harp seal.
| date | place and details |
| shortly after 1945 | Zeeland (report via fur buyer) |
| 25 February 1987 | Rottumerplaat |
| 2 March 1987 | Texel, young male, released by Ecomare |
| 25 March 1987 | Veerse dam |
| 26 March 1987 | Renesse |
| 1 April 1987 | Ameland,young male |
| 7 April 1987 | Schiermonnikoog |
| 9 April 1987 | Den Oever |
| 10 April 1987 | Vlieland |
| early April 1987 | Terschelling |
| 3 March 1988 | Noordwijk |
| 28 March 1988 | Lauwersoog |
| 25 February 1990 | Terschelling, young male |
| 15 March 1990 | Den Helder |
| 1 January 1994 | Terschelling; alive, released by seal sanctuary Pieterburen |
| 11 January 1995 | Brouwersdam |
| 7 April 1996 | Texel, dead, extraordinarily large female |
| February 1997 | Terschelling, live one-year old female; released by seal sanctuary Pieterburen |
(unless otherwise stated, beaching was adult or nearly adult males)
from various sources |
Names:
Dut: zadelrob
Eng: harp seal
Fren: phoque du Groenland
Ger: Sattelrobbe
Lat: Phoca groenlandica (Pagophilus groenlandica)
Dan: Grønlandsæl
Nor: Grønlandssel
Source: de Vleet, Ecomare
