We have heard of no more Harp Seal sightings in the Meadowlands since last month, and we are still looking for earlier records of any.

Erik Kiviat, executive director of Hudsonia, a non-profit environmental research institute, reports: "I have no Newark Bay or Hackensack River records of harp seal from the Marine Mammal Stranding Center as of 2008. There are two Hudson County records from Bayonne in NY Harbor, and many records from Monmouth Co."

But Tom Shinskey, principal environmental scientist for The Louis Berger Group, found this:  "NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] has noted the harp seal increase in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic and released this on Monday:  http://www.nero.noaa.gov/nero/hotnews/arcticseals/ (Thanks, Erik and Tom!)

Here's a snippet the NOAA press release: "NOAA reported today that there has been a large influx of harp seals into Northeast region waters. Harp seals typically are found from the Arctic to the southeast coast of Atlantic Canada, but they have been known to venture much further south." [The press release notes that one was seen as far south as North Carolina this year.]

Link to our original blog post is here.