Stephanie Norman

Stephanie Norman

Aug 25, 2018

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What's special about harbor seals and harbor porpoises?

We are doing well on our crowdfunding momentum so far. Thank you to all who have generously supported us so far. We are very excited about the interest in this project. Today we wanted to tell you why we selected harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) as our study animals. We needed animals that occur fairly commonly in the inland waters of Washington state (the Salish Sea) and remain relatively "close to home" year round, in other words don't migrate out very far or often from the Sea.

For these two reasons, harbor seals and porpoises are great candidates. They are the most commonly stranded species in the Salish Sea. Harbor seals tend to be nonmigratory, preferring to stay within close range of their beach haul-out sites. They often show up on our local (including city) beaches and are very likely exposed to much of the ground and surface water that runs off the land and into the Sea or that shows up on beaches where humans and domestic animals share the shores.

Harbor porpoises are the most common cetacean (meaning dolphin, whale, or porpoise) found in the Salish Sea. They are quite shy and difficult to spot out on the open water. The harbor porpoises found in the inland waters of Washington (as opposed to the outer coast population) are considered to be year-round residents. This increases the chances of them being exposed to bacteria, or antibiotics themselves from groundwater runoff, in the Salish Sea.

You can read more about these amazing animals and their lives in the Salish Sea in the attached profiles from the Encyclopedia of Puget Sound!

Harbor seal pup (L) and harbor porpoise (R)


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  • Jay Norman
    Jay NormanBacker
    I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your study.
    Aug 25, 2018

About This Project

Antibiotic resistance, a global concern, is a significant health issue of animals and humans. Resistant bacteria, a growing presence in marine life, are derived from land via humans, animals, and agriculture. This is particularly troubling. Are resistant bacteria present in marine mammals of an urban ecosystem, the Salish Sea, in Washington State? We will sample dead locally stranded harbor seals and porpoises to detect resistant bacteria and their possible linkages to land sources.

Blast off!

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