International Day of the Seal

For International Day of the Seal, SATURN have collected all of their research on harbour seals.

It may surprise you that that seals are commonly found in the Elbe river: their haul-out sites are located in the intertidal zone, close to the main waterway or in branches. This environment, however, is highly exposed to vessel traffic to & from the busy Port of Hamburg: Germany’s largest port by volume and the third busiest port in Europe.

SATURN has been tagging and tracking harbour seals and through the data from these D-TAGs, they can analyse and assess how harbour seals respond to the underwater noise generated by shipping traffic.

Learn more about their research here.