Hunter-assisted study on ringed and bearded seal movements, habitat use, and TEK

Because of the groundbreaking work the Native Village of Kotzebue led in community-based seal capture and tagging efforts from 2003 to 2012, in 2014 the State of Alaska ADF&G Marine Mammal Program cooperated with the Tribe to undertake additional seal tagging of ringed and bearded seals in Kotzebue Sound during the summer of 2014.  They also expanded the capture efforts to other communities and hunters from Elim, Koyuk, Unalakleet, and St. Michael learned how to tag seals with satellite transmitters in March.  The results of this project were presented at the 2015 Alaska Marine Science Symposium in poster form.