14 
Fishery Bulletin 112(1) 
78WW 
Figure 6 
Locations of strandings in North Carolina during 1997-2008 by species or taxonomic group. (A) The ocean coastline is divid- 
ed into 7 segments for coastal bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ) (from north to south: Al, A2, Bl, B2, Cl, C2, D) and 
(B-K) the ocean coastline is divided into 4 segments for all other taxonomic groups (from north to south: A, B, C, D). Map B: 
SF=short-finned pilot whales ( Globicephala macrorhynchus), LF=long-finned pilot whales (G. melas), and Unk=unknown. Map D: 
southern pelagic delphinids — Fa ( Feresa attenuata ), Pe (Peponocephala electra), Sa ( Stenella attenuata), Sc ( Stenella clymene), SI 
(Stenella longirostris) , and Sb (Steno bredanensis). Map E: cosmopolitan pelagic delphinids — Gg ( Grampus griseus), Pc ( Pseudorca 
crassidens), Sf ( Stenella frontalis), and Tt ( Tursiops truncatus) offshore. 
Spatiotemporal patterns 
Seals In the western North Atlantic, seals generally 
occur at higher latitudes than those of NC. New Jersey 
is considered the prevalent southern distribution for 
harbor seals (Burns, 2009) and southeastern Canada 
for hooded and harp seals (McAlpine and Walker, 1990, 
McAlpine et al., 1999). Extralimital records exist from 
sightings but strandings are also an indicator of such 
extralimital movements. For example, juvenile harp 
seals have been reported as far south as Cape Henry, 
Virginia, (McAlpine and Walker, 1990), as well as hav- 
ing been stranded in NC. In contrast, although gray 
seals breed as far south as Massachusetts, their report- 
ed occurrence south of New Jersey is known only from 
strandings (Waring et al., 2013). Although the occur- 
rence of extralimital records of hooded and harp seals 
has increased since the early 1990s (McAlpine and 
Walker, 1990; McAlpine et al., 1999), neither species 
was abundant in the current data set, despite strand- 
ing in most years. Extralimital sightings of hooded 
seals may be more common than those of harp seals 
overall; they are certainly more wide ranging, with re- 
ports as far south as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin 
Islands (Mignucci-Giannoni and Odell, 2001). Nonethe- 
less, in NC, harbor seals were recovered much farther 
south than hooded seals. 
Although seal strandings occurred in every month 
and in all coastal segments, their occurrence primar- 
ily in winter and north of Cape Hatteras is consistent 
with general patterns of seal migration. Hooded seals 
were an exception with most strandings in the summer, 
including the southernmost records (McAlpine et al., 
1999; Mignucci-Giannoni and Odell, 2001). In addition, 
the strandings of predominantly immature seals in NC 
may be indicative of age-segregated migration in which 
juveniles may be more likely to travel this far south or 
may be more likely to stay closer to shore than adults 
during winter, or may be indicative of greater mortality 
of immature animals while off NC. 
For seals, human interactions were predominately 
a result of bycatch or harassment of live seals on the 
beach. The presence of these seals on the beach elic- 
ited great public interest because they are infrequent 
