The Grey Seal (''Halichoerus grypus'', meaning "hooked-nosed sea pig") is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a large seal of the family Phocidae or "true seals". It is the only species classified in the genus ''Halichoerus''. Its name is spelled Gray Seal in the US; it is also known as Atlantic Grey Seal and the Horsehead Seal.

Appearance

It is a large seal, with the bulls reaching long and weighing ; the cows are much smaller, typically long and in weight. Individuals from the western Atlantic are often much larger, with males reaching and females weighing up to . It is distinguished from the Common Seal by its straight head profile with nostrils that are well apart, and fewer spots on its body. Bull Greys have larger noses and a more convex profile than Common Seal bulls. Males are generally darker than females, with lighter patches and often scarring around the neck. Females are silver grey to brown with dark patches.

Ecology and distribution

In Great Britain and Ireland, the Grey Seal breeds in several colonies on and around the coasts. Notably large colonies are at Donna Nook (Lincolnshire), the Farne Islands off the Northumberland Coast (about 6,000 animals), Orkney and North Rona off the north coast of Scotland, Lambay Island off the coast of Dublin and Ramsey Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire.

In the Western North Atlantic, the Grey Seal is typically found in large numbers in the coastal waters of Canada and south to about New Jersey in the United States. In Canada, it is typically seen in areas such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, the Maritimes, and Quebec. The largest colony in the world is at Sable Island, NS. In the United States it's found year round off the coast of New England, in particular Maine and Massachusetts, and slightly less frequently in the Middle Atlantic States. Its natural range extends south to Virginia.

An isolated population exists in the Baltic Sea, forming the ''H. grypus balticus'' subspecies.

During the winter months Grey Seals can be seen hauled out on the rocks, islands, and shoals not far from shore, and occasionally coming ashore to rest. In the spring the recently weaned pups and yearlings occasionally strand on beaches after becoming "lost."

Diet

The Grey Seal feeds on a wide variety of fish, mostly benthic or demersal species, taken at depths down to 70 m (230 ft) or more. Sand eels (''Ammodytes spp'') are important in its diet in many localities. Cod and other gadids, flatfish, herring and skates are also important locally. However, it is clear that the Grey Seal will eat whatever is available, including octopus and lobsters. The average daily food requirement is estimated to be 5 kg (11 lb), though the seal does not feed every day and it fasts during the breeding season.

Reproduction

The pups are born in autumn (September to November) in the eastern Atlantic and in winter (January to February) in the west, with a dense, soft silky white fur; at first they are small and shrivelled-looking, but they rapidly fatten up to look like over-filled barrels, from the extremely fat-rich milk they receive from their mothers. Within a month or so, they shed the pup fur and grow the dense waterproof adult fur, and soon leave for the sea to learn to fish for themselves. In recent years, the number of Grey Seals has been on the rise in the west and in Canada there have been calls for a seal cull.

Status

In the United States Grey Seal numbers are increasing rapidly. Up until 1962, Maine and Massachusetts had bounties on seals so that only a few isolated colonies of Grey Seals remained in Maine. Then in 1972 Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act that prevented harming or harassing seals, and Grey Seal populations rebounded. For example there is a large breeding colony near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where pups rebounded from a handful in 1980 to more than 2,000 in 2008. By 2009, thousands of Grey Seals there had taken up residence on or near popular swimming beaches when Great White Sharks started hunting them close to shore. Also Grey Seals are seen increasingly in New York and New Jersey waters, and it's expected that they will establish colonies further south.

In the UK seals are protected under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970, however it does not apply to Northern Ireland. In the UK there have also been calls for a cull from some fishermen, claiming that stocks have declined due to the seals.

Subspecies

There are two recognized subspecies of this seal:

''Halichoerus grypus grypus''

''Halichoerus grypus macrorhynchus'', synonymously known as ''H. grypus balticus''.

References

External links

BBC Wales Nature: Grey Seal video clips

Grey Seals on pinnipeds.org : http://www.pinnipeds.org/species/grey.htm

ARKive - images and movies of the grey seal from Atlantic ''(Halichoerus grypus)''

images of the grey seal from North Sea ''(Halichoerus grypus)''

Grey Seal Conservation Society (GSCS) http://www.greyseal.net

Category:True seals Category:Mammals of Europe Category:Fauna of Ireland Category:Fauna of the United Kingdom Category:Fauna of the North Sea Category:Mammals of Great Britain Category:Fauna of Poland

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Coordinates	33°55′31″N18°25′26″N
Name	Ingrid Michaelson
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Ingrid Ellen Egbert Michaelson
Born	December 08, 1979
Origin	Staten Island, New York, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, ukulele
Genre	Indie pop, indie folk
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
Years active	2002–present
Label	Cabin 24 Records
Website	TwitterYouTube
Domestic partner(s)	Greg Laswell (2009 - present)
Past members	}}

Ingrid Ewe Ellen Egbert Michaelson (born December 8, 1979) is a New York-based indie-pop singer-songwriter, known for her single "The Way I Am". Her music has been featured in episodes of several popular television shows, including ''Scrubs'', ''Bones'', ''Grey's Anatomy'' ''The Big C'' and ''One Tree Hill'', as well as in Old Navy's Fall 2007 Fair Isle and Opel's/Vauxhall's Meriva 2010 advertising campaign.

Biography

Michaelson was born to artistic parents. Her father is a composer and her mother is a sculptor. Michaelson took up piano at age four, and trained until seven at Manhattan's Third Street Music School, continuing for many more years at the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island's Dorothy Delson Kuhn Music Institute. While there she met vocal coach Elizabeth McCullough, who worked with her through high school. She is a graduate of Staten Island Technical High School and Binghamton University, where she received a degree in theater. While at Binghamton University she was a member of the Binghamtonics, a co-ed acappella group, as well as the Pappy Parker Players, an improv comedy group, and the theatre repertory company under Sue Peters. Her time at Binghamton is mentioned in the song "The Hat". She grew up doing a musical theater group called "Kids On Stage". Later in life, she became a director until she decided to pursue her career in music.

Toward the end of 2008, she opened for Jason Mraz on his Europe tour, touring in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and France among others. In the second half of 2009, Ingrid began her "Everybody" tour of the United States and Europe which continued in 2010.

Television appearances

A number of Michaelson's songs have been used in the TV series ''Grey's Anatomy''. "The Way I Am" was featured in "Six Days (Part 2)" (January 11, 2007), garnering attention from viewers. "Breakable" was featured in "Staring at the Sun" (16 November 2006). "Corner of Your Heart" was featured in "Testing 1-2-3" (13 September 2007)."Keep Breathing" was featured on the May 17, 2007 season 3 finale, "Didn't We Almost Have It All". "Giving Up" was featured in the 22 May 2008 season 4 finale, "Freedom". "Turn to Stone", a new B-side single from her upcoming album, ''Everybody'', was featured in the 7 May 2009 season 5 episode, "What a Difference a Day Makes". "All Love" was featured in the second hour of the Season 5 finale. "The Chain" was featured in the 1 October 2009 season 6 episode "I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watchin' Me". On January 21, 2010, "Everybody" was played on Season 6."Everybody" also appeared on "Brothers & Sisters" Season 4 Episode 14.

Four of her songs have also appeared in ''One Tree Hill''. "Masochist" was featured in Season 4, Episode 13: "Pictures of You"; "Overboard", was used in Season 4, Episode 14: "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers"; "The Way I Am" was used in Season 4, Episode 19: "Ashes of Dreams You Let Die"; and "Can't Help Falling In Love" was used in Season 6, Episode 23: "Forever And Almost Always". Other appearances include "The Way I Am" and "Breakable" in ''The Real World: Denver'', as well as "The Way I Am", "Die Alone" and "Far Away (Untitled)" in ''The Bad Girls Club''. "Breakable" was also featured in Season 2, Episode 3: "The List is Life" of ''Kyle XY''. Old Navy featured "The Way I Am" in their fall/winter advertisement. "Are We There Yet" was featured on the ABC family show "Make it or Break it"

On Valentine's Day 2008, Michaelson was the musical guest on ''Good Morning America'', and the following day she appeared on ''Live with Regis and Kelly''. She has also appeared on VH1, ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', ''The AT&T; Blue Room'', ''Live From The Artists Den'', NPR's ''Bryant Park Project'', ''The Rachael Ray Show'' and ''Last Call with Carson Daly'', where she performed with Joshua Radin.

Her song "Be OK" appears in ''The House Bunny'', episode 15 of the second season of NBC's 2010 series ''Parenthood'', a Traveler's Insurance commercial, a Mott's Apple Juice commercial featuring actress Marcia Cross., and a Ritz Crackers commercial in 2011. It was also used in a season 4 episode of ''Ugly Betty''.

Michaelson recorded a duet with Sara Bareilles called "Winter Song", which featured on the ''The Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs''. An animated music video was released to accompany the song. They performed the song on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' on December 9, 2008. This was also featured in ''Grey's Anatomy''s fifth season. "Winter Song" was also featured on the eighth episode of season 4 of ''Brothers & Sisters'', the seventeenth episode of ''Scrubs'' season eight, and on the fifth episode of the third season of ''Army Wives''. Michaelson and Bareilles performed the song at the 2010 National Christmas Tree Lighting.

Her song "Starting Now" appeared in ''Pretty Little Liars'' on July 20, 2010 in the seventh episode of season 1, "The Homecoming Hangover".

Her song "You and I", from the 2008 album ''Be OK'', plays over the credits of the 2010 romantic comedy ''My Girlfriend's Boyfriend'', starring Alyssa Milano, Christopher Gorham, Michael Landes, Tom Lenk and Beau Bridges.

Part of her song "Everybody" was featured in 2010's Ramona and Beezus.

Additionally, her song "The Chain" was featured in the CW show Hellcats, season 1, episode 12 "Papa, Oh Papa" on January, 24, 2011.

Her song "Maybe" was featured on the ABC medical drama "Body of Proof" in the episode "Society Hill", the sixth episode of the first season. It was also used on the USA network show, In Plain Sight, in the episode, "I'm a Liver, Not a Fighter," in Season 4.

Her song, Sort Of, was used on the advert for the internet browser Google Chrome. The advert premièred during the champions league final in May 2011. Her song "Turn to Stone" was featured on The Vampire Diaries in the episode "As I Lay Dying", the season 2 finale on May 12, 2011. On June 15, 2011 "Turn to Stone" was used for a contemporary dance routine on So You Think You Can Dance.

Her song "Keep Breathing" was featured on The Big C in Series one, Episode 2 towards the end of the episode

Collaborations

In 2006, Ingrid teamed up with William Fitzsimmons on his album ''Goodnight'', which was released that same year.

Ingrid and her friend Sara Bareilles co-wrote "Winter Song" which was featured on ''The Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs'', a compilation of both original recordings as well as classic holiday tracks sung by a lineup of female singer-songwriters. Ingrid also worked with Bareilles, performing "Winter Song" for the President Obama and his family as well as many spectators at the National Christmas Tree Lighting in December 2010.

Ingrid provided back-up vocals on two songs from PlayRadioPlay!'s album ''Texas'', including "I'm a Pirate, You're a Princess" and the title track, "Texas".

Ingrid provided back-up vocals on Greg Laswell's album, ''Take A Bow'', which was released on May 4, 2010. Collaboration was done on the songs "Take Everything," "My Fight (For You)," and "Come Clean."

Ingrid's band includes Allie Moss and Bess Rogers on guitar, who are singer/songwriters in their own right. Allie Moss released a 2009 EP entitled ''Passerby''. A single from the EP, "Corner", has been picked up by BT for their BT Infinity television commercials in the UK. Other band members include Chris Kuffner (guitar), husband of Bess Rogers, Saul Simon-MacWilliams (keys) and Elliot Jacobson (drums).

In 2010, Ingrid co-wrote a song entitled "Parachute" with Marshall Altman which was covered by singer Cheryl Cole on her debut solo album ''3 Words''; it hit number 1 in the UK. Ingrid initially felt the track was "so poppy" that she could not release it herself. However, after the song was reworked by "Everybody" producer Dan Romer to make a more "interesting, funky production", Ingrid released the song as a personal single. To date, the song has received two separate music videos.

Of the release of "Parachute" and upcoming material, Ingrid explained in a 2010 interview with Billboard.com, "I just felt like I wanted to put something out. I'm not ready to put a full album out, so we thought we'd put this out and see how people take it or don't take it," saying that she expects to release her next album, "probably in the middle of next year."

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions
		! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"
''Slow the Rain''		* Release date: January 10, 2005	* Label: self-released	Compact disc>CD, music download	—	—	—	—	—
! scope="row"		* Release date: May 16, 2007	* Label: Cabin 24 Records	* Formats: CD, music download	63	17	1	6	100
! scope="row"		* Release date: October 14, 2008	* Label: Cabin 24 Records	* Formats: CD, music download	35	13	—	2	—
! scope="row"		* Release date: August 25, 2009	* Label: Cabin 24 Records	* Formats: CD, music download	18	7	—	—	—

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions								Album
		! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"
2007	! scope="row"	37	20	15	—	36	51	69	—		US">Music recording sales certification	Album
! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"	! width="35"
2007	! scope="row"	37	20	15	—	36	51	69	—		US: Platinum
2008	! scope="row"	91	—	—	—	45	—	64	174
2009	! scope="row"	—	27	14	38	—	—	97	—
2010	"Everybody"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

References

External links

Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:Binghamton University alumni Category:People from New York City Category:People from Staten Island Category:Musicians from New York City Category:American singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American pianists Category:American sopranos Category:American guitarists Category:Ukulele players Category:American folk musicians

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