Animal - Harbour Seals in Alaska - postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Harbour Seals in Southeast Alaska, USA
• Publisher:  Mark Kelly
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  94c [St John US Virgin Islands] stamp + 4c [Chippendale Chair]
• Postmark(s):  Juneau, Alaska, 2009
• Sent to:  Bristil England
• Notes / condition: 

Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.

Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one.

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Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal ONLY (unless otherwise stated) please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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The harbor (or harbour) seal (Phoca vitulina), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed of pinniped (walruses, eared seals, and true seals), they are found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Baltic and North Seas.

Harbor seals are brown, tan, or gray, with distinctive V-shaped nostrils. An adult can attain a length of 1.85 meters (6.1 ft) and a mass of 132 kilograms (290 lb). Females outlive males (30–35 years versus 20–25 years). Harbor seals stick to familiar resting spots or haulout sites, generally rocky areas (although ice, sand and mud may also be used) where they are protected from adverse weather conditions and predation, near a foraging area. Males may fight over mates underwater and on land. Females bear a single pup, which they care for alone. Pups are able to swim and dive within hours of birth, developing quickly on their mothers' fat-rich milk. Blubber under their skins helps to maintain body temperature.

Their global population is 5–6 million, but subspecies in certain habitats are threatened. Once a common practice, sealing is now illegal in many nations within the animal's range.

Individual harbor seals possess a unique pattern of spots, either dark on a light background or light on a dark. They vary in color from brownish black to tan or grey; underparts are generally lighter. The body and flippers are short, heads are rounded. Nostrils appear distinctively V-shaped. As with other true seals, there is no pinna (ear flap). An ear canal may be visible behind the eye. Including the head and flippers, they may reach an adult length of 1.85 meters (6.1 ft) and a weight of 55 to 168 kg (120 to 370 lb).^[3] Females are generally smaller than males.

There are an estimated 5 million to 6 million harbor seals worldwide. While the population is not threatened as a whole, the Greenland, Hokkaido and Baltic Sea populations are exceptions. Local populations have been reduced or eliminated through disease (especially the phocine distemper virus) and conflict with humans, both unintentionally and intentionally. It is legal to kill seals perceived to threaten fisheries in the United Kingdom, Norway and Canada, but commercial hunting is illegal. Seals are also taken in subsistence hunting and accidentally as bycatch (mainly in bottomset nets). Along the Norwegian coast bycatch accounted for 48% of pup mortality.^[4]

Seals in the United Kingdom are protected by the 1970 Conservation of Seals Act, which prohibits most forms of killing. In the United States the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 prohibits the killing of any marine mammals and most local ordinances as well as NOAA instruct citizens to leave them alone unless there is serious danger to the seal. On the East Coast of the US their numbers are increasing steadily as they are reclaiming parts of their range, which naturally extends to North Carolina but the subspecies particular to this area will stray as far south as Florida. Pupping is known to occur in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and possibly New York (Long Island.)

type=printed postcards

theme=animals

sub-theme=seals

county/ country=usa

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=posted