Harp seal
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Superfamily:	Pinnipedia
Family:	Phocidae
Genus:	Pagophilus
Species:	P. groenlandicus
Binomial name
Pagophilus groenlandicus Erxleben, 1777

The harp seal or saddleback seal is a species of earless seal native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and parts of the Arctic Ocean. It now belongs to the monotypic genus Pagophilus. Its scientific name, Pagophilus groenlandicus, means "ice-lover from Greenland", and its synonym, Phoca groenlandica means "Greenland seal".^[2] Originally in the genus Phoca with a number of other species, it has since been reclassified into its own genus Pagophilus.

Description[link]

The harp seal has a black face with silvery-gray body. Its eyes are pure black. It has black harp or wishbone-shaped markings on the back. They exhibit little sexual dimorphism.^[2] The baby harp seal (pup) has a yellow-white coat at birth, but after three days, the coat turns white and stays white for about 12 days. Adult harp seals grow up to be 1.7 to 2.0 m (5 to 6 feet) long and weigh from 140 to 190 kg (300 to 400 pounds).

Physiology[link]

Thermoregulation[link]

Harp seals combine anatomical and behavioral approaches to managing their body temperatures, instead of elevating their metabolic rate and energy requirements.^[2] A thick coat of blubber insulates its body and provides energy when food is scarce or during fasting. Blubber also streamlines its body for more efficient swimming. Brown fat warms blood as it returns from the body surface as well as providing energy, most importantly for just-weaned pups.^[2]

Flippers act as heat exchangers, warming or cooling the blood as needed. On ice, the seal can press its foreflippers to its body and its hindflippers together to reduce heat loss.^[2]

Senses[link]

Vision is its critical sense. Its eye is proportionally large and contains a large spherical lens, improving its focusing ability. Its pupil is mobile to help it adapt to the intense glare of the Arctic ice. Its retina is rod-dominated and backed by a cat-like and reflective tapetum lucidum, enhancing its low light sensitivity. Its rods best sense blue-green, while its cones help with bright light and may provide some color discrimination. Its cornea is constantly tear-covered, to protect it from salt. Lacking tear ducts, it "cries" to remove its tears.^[2] On ice, the mother identifies her offspring by smell. This sense may also warn of an approaching predator. Underwater, this seal closes its nostrils and smells nothing.^[2] Its whiskers, called vibrissae, lie in horizontal rows on either side of its snout. They may provide a touch sense, and underwater, also respond to low-frequency vibrations, such as movement.^[2]

Life history[link]

Harp seals prefer to swim in the ocean, spending relatively little time on land.^[3] These are extremely social animals and they can be very noisy, as well. They will form large colonies where they spend a great deal of time. Within that loose structure, smaller groups with their own hierarchy are believed to form. Sometimes, these large groups will have to go their separate ways there. Many harp seals are able to live up to 30 years in the wild.

On the ice, pups call their mothers by "bawling" and "mumble" while playing with others. Adults "growl" and "warble" to warn off others. Underwater, adults express themselves with more than 19 call types during courting and mating.^[2]

Reproduction[link]

Females mature sexually at age five to six. Annually thereafter, they bear one pup, usually in late February. The fertilized egg grows into a spherical embryo that implants in the uterus only after three or so months, to allow birth to take place while sufficient pack ice is available.^[2]

Newborn pups weigh around 11 kilograms (24 lb) and are 80–85 centimetres (31–33 in) long. After birth, the mother only feeds that pup. During the 12 day nursing period, the mother does not eat, losing up to 3 kilograms (7 lb) per day. Harp seal milk contains up to 48% fat, so pups gain over 2.2 kilograms (4.9 lb) per day. During this time, the juvenile's "greycoat" grows in beneath the white neonatal coat, and it weighs 80 pounds (36 kg). Weaning is abrupt; the mother turns from nursing to promiscuous mating, leaving the pup behind on the ice. While courtship starts on the ice, mating usually takes place in the water.^[2]

The stranded pup cries at first, and then becomes sedentary to conserve body fat. Within a few days, it sheds its white coat, reaching the "beater" stage.^[2]

Pups are unable to swim or find food until seven to eight weeks old or until the ice melts, leaving them vulnerable to polar bears and other predators. This fast costs them up to 50% of their weight. As many as 30% of pups die during their first year, due in part to their early immobility because they learn to swim only slowly.

At about 13–14 months old, the pup molts again, becoming a "bedlamer". Juveniles molt several times, producing a "spotted harp", before the adult's harp-marked pelt fully emerges after several years (or not all in females).^[2]

Seals congregate annually on the ice to molt before migrating to summer feeding grounds. Their lifespan extends for about 20 years.^[2]

Distribution[link]

The harp seal population is found in three separate populations, each of which uses a specific breeding site. The western North Atlantic stock, which is the largest, is located off eastern Canada. This population is further divided into two separate herds based on the breeding location. The Front herd breeds off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland, and the Gulf herd breeds near the Magdalen Islands in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A second stock breeds on the "West Ice" off eastern Greenland. A third stock breeds on the "East Ice" in the White Sea, which is off the coast of Russia. Breeding occurs between mid-February and April, and varies somewhat for each stock.^[4][5]

Migration and vagrancy[link]

Harp seals are strongly migratory. The northwest population regularly moves up to 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) northeast outside of the breeding season;^[6] one individual was located off the north Norwegian coast, 4,640 kilometers (2,880 mi) east northeast of its tagging location.^[7] Their navigational accuracy is high, with good eyesight an important factor.^[6][8] They are occasionally found as vagrants, south of their normal range. In Great Britain, a total of 31 vagrants were recorded between 1800 and 1988,^[9]

More recently, they reached Lindisfarne in Northumberland in September 1995,^[10] and the Shetland Islands in 1987. The latter was linked to a mass movement of harp seals into Norwegian waters; by mid-February 1987, 24,000 were reported drowned in fishing nets and perhaps 300,000 (about 10% of the world population) had invaded fjords as far south as Oslo. The animals were emaciated, likely due to humans competing for their prey.^[11]

Relation to humans[link]

Seal hunting[link]

All three populations are hunted commercially, mainly by Canada, Norway, Russia and Greenland.^[2]

In Canada, commercial hunting season is from November 15 to May 15. Most sealing occurs in late March in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and during the first or second week of April off Newfoundland, in an area known as "the Front". This peak spring period is generally what is referred to as the "Canadian seal hunt". Hunting Canadian whitecoats has been banned since 1987. In 2006, the St. Lawrence hunt officially started on March 25 due to thin ice caused by the year's milder temperatures. Inuit people living in the region hunt mainly for food and, to a lesser extent, commerce.^[2]

In 2003, the three-year quota granted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was increased to 975,000, with a maximum of 350,000 in any two consecutive years. In 2006, 325,000 harp seals, as well as 10,000 hooded seals and 10,400 grey seals were killed. An additional 10,000 animals are allocated to First Nations hunters. From 2004-2007, over 1 million were taken, 95% under the age of 3 months.

The Canadian seal hunt is monitored by the Canadian Government. Although approximately 70% of the hunt occurs on "the Front", most private monitors focus on the St. Lawrence hunt, due to its more convenient location. About 70-90,000 animals are taken from this population off the coast of Greenland.^[2]

The 2004 West Ice TAC was 15,000 "1+" animals (2 pups = 1+), almost double the sustainable catch of 8,200. Actual catches were 9,895 in 2004 and 5,808 in 2005.^[2]

The 2004 White Sea TAC was 45,000 1+ (2.5 pups = 1+). The catch was 22,474.^[2]

Greenlandic Seal Hunt[link]

Read this report from the Department of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture of Greenland: Management and utilization of seals in Greenland

Notice the methods used for hunting seals in Greenland is different from the ones used in Canada. ie. Hunting of harp seal in Greenland is exclusively from small boats with rifles.^[12]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

• ICES/NAFO Working Group on Harp and Hooded Seals
• Smithsonian Institution - North American Mammals: Pagophilus groenlandicus

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (January 2011)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011)

Harp

A medieval harp (left) and a single-action pedal harp (right)
String instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	322-5 (Composite chordophone sounded by the bare fingers)
Playing range
(modern pedal harp)[1]
Related instruments
Chang Çeng Lyre

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones (stringed instruments) and has its own sub category (the harps). All harps have a neck, resonator and strings. Some, known as frame harps, also have a pillar; those without the pillar are referred to as open harps. Depending on its size, which varies, a harp may be played while held in the lap or while it stands on a table, or on the floor. Harp strings may be made of nylon, gut, wire or silk. On smaller harps, like the folk harp, the core string material will typically be the same for all strings on a given harp. Larger instruments like the modern concert harp mix string materials to attain their extended ranges. A person who plays the harp is called a harpist or harper. Folk musicians often use the term "harper", whereas classical musicians use "harpist".

Various types of harps are found in Africa, Europe, North and South America and in Asia. In antiquity, harps and the closely related lyres were very prominent in nearly all cultures. The harp also was predominant with medieval bards, troubadors and minnesingers throughout the Spanish Empire. Harps continued to grow in popularity through improvements in their design and construction through the beginning of the 20th century.

Terminology[link]

A number of non-harp-like instruments are colloquially referred to as "harps". Chordophones like the aeolian harp, (wind harp) and the autoharp (with the piano and harpsichord) are not harps, but zithers, because their strings are not perpendicular to their soundboard. Likely, the many varieties of harp guitar and harp lute, while chordophones, belong to the lute family and are not true harps. All forms of the lyre and kithara are also not harps, but belong to the fourth family of ancient instruments under the chordophones, the lyres.

The term "harp" has also been applied to many instruments which are not chordophones. The vibraphone was (and is still) sometimes referred to as the "vibraharp," though it has no strings and its sound is produced by striking metal bars. In blues music, the harmonica is casually referred to as a "blues harp" or "harp", but it is a free reed wind instrument; not a stringed instrument, and is therefore not a true harp.

Origins[link]

The origin of the harp goes back to Persia. The oldest depictions of harps without a forepillar are from 500 BC, which was the Persian harp of Perspolis/Persia in Iran and from 400 BC in Egypt. The Harp (Persian: چتگ Chang) flourished in Persia in many forms from its introduction, about 3000 B.C.E., until the 17th century. The original type was the arched harp as seen at Choghâ Miš and on later third millennium seals (fig. 1a-c). Around 1900 B.C.E. they were replaced by angular harps with verti-cal (fig. 2) or horizontal (fig. 3) sound boxes. By the start of the Common Era, "robust, vertical, angular harps" (fig. 2), which had become predominant in the Hellenistic world, were cherished in the Sasanian court. In the last century of the Sasanian period, angular harps were redesigned to make them as light as possible ("light, vertical, angular harps," fig. 4); while they became more elegant, they lost their structural rigidity. At the height of the Persian tradition of illustrated book production (1300 to 1600 C.E.), such light harps were still frequently depicted, although their use as musical instruments was reaching its end.^[2]

• 

  Ancient Persian harps carved in stone

• 

  An ancient Egyptian harp on display in the British Museum

Structure and mechanism[link]

The basic structural elements and terminology of a concert harp

Harps are essentially triangular and are made primarily of wood. Modern harp strings are often nylon or, less often, metal; tuning pins are also metal components. The bottom ends of each string is fed through a small metal eyelet and tied in a knot on the inside of the sounding-board, which is the upward-facing surface of the resonating cavity (the sound box or body). The body is hollow and when a taut string is plucked, the body resonates, projecting sound both inward towards the harp player through a series of usually oval openings (whose principal purpose is to allow access to the strings and only secondarily to enhance resonation) and, much more importantly and powerfully, outward through the flexible and taut-strung sounding board. The crossbar, or neck, contains the mechanism or levers which determine the pitch alteration (sharps and flats) for each string. The upper ends of the strings are attached to pins in holes drilled through the neck at specific intervals and at specific distances from the soundboard.

The longest side of the harp is called the column or pillar. In those harps which have pedals, this side is a hollow column and encloses the rods which control the pedal mechanisms. At the base of a pedal harp are seven pedals, which activate the rods when the pedals are downwardly pressed. The modern sophisticated instrument spanning 6½ octaves in virtually all keys was perfected by the 19th-century French maker Sébastien Érard and because of its pedal-driven ability to play all sharps and flats of all notes within its range, it continues today as the standard style of most large professional concert harps.

Lever harps, however, do not have pedals or rods, and the pillar's only purpose in these instruments is to hold up the neck against the great strain of the strings. Lever harps use a shortening lever (usually shaped like a capital letter L) on the neck next to each individual string which is to be activated (i.e., turned) manually to shorten the string and raise the tone a half step. A string tuned to natural may be played in sharp, but not flat. A string tuned to flat may be played in natural, but not sharp. Also, in order to change a string from one tone to another during a performance, a harp player must take one entire hand off the harp for a moment and switch the lever—this may cause an acoustic gap in a performance, as for a brief moment only one hand will be in use. Lever harps are considerably lighter in weight than pedal harps and are smaller in size and number of strings. They are also much easier to manufacture, less easily damaged, easier to repair, and far less expensive to produce and maintain.

Finally, many harps are built without either pedals or levers. These harps can only play in a single key during any given performance, though any string on a harp can be tuned to a corresponding sharp or flat before a performance and then be returned to its regular tension/ key afterwards with little effort.

Development and history[link]

Europe[link]

A medieval European harp (the Wartburg harp) with buzzing bray pins.

Angle harps and bow harps continue to be used to the present day. In Europe, however, there was further development.^[when?] Adding a third structural member, the pillar, to support the far ends of the arch and sound box. The Triangular Frame harp is depicted in sculpture from the 8th century Pictish stones in Scotland^[3][4] and in manuscripts (i.e. the Utrecht Psalter) from the early 9th century France.^[5] The curve of the harp's neck is a result of the proportional shortening of the basic triangular form to keep the strings are equidistant. If the strings were proportionately distanced, the strings would be farther apart.

European harps in medieval and Renaissance times usually had a bray pin fitted to make a buzzing sound when a string was plucked. By the baroque period, in Italy and Spain, more strings were added to allow for chromatic notes; these were usually in a second line of strings. At the same time single-row diatonic harps continued to be played.^{[citation needed]}

The first primitive form of pedal harps were developed in the Tyrol region of Austria. Hochbrucker was the next to design an improved pedal mechanism, followed in succession by Krumpholtz, Nadermann, and the Erard company, who came up with the double mechanism. In Germany in the second half of the 17th century, diatonic single-row harps were fitted with manually turned hooks which fretted individual strings to raise their pitch by a half step. In the 18th century, a link mechanism was developed connecting these hooks with pedals, leading to the invention of the single-action pedal harp. Later, a second row of hooks was installed along the neck to allow for the double-action pedal harp, capable of raising the pitch of a string by either one or two half steps. The idea was even extended to triple-action harps, but these were never common. The double-action pedal harp remains the normal form of the instrument in the Western classical orchestra. There was a chromatic harp developed in the late 19th century that only found a small number of proponents, and was mainly taught in Belgium.^{[citation needed]}

Latin America[link]

In Latin America, harps are widely but sparsely distributed, except in certain regions where the harp traditions are very strong. Such important centers include Mexico, Andes, Venezuela and Paraguay. They are derived from the Baroque harps that were brought from Spain during the colonial period.^{[citation needed]}

In Perú harp is used commonly in andean music called Huayno.

Detailed features vary from place to place. Paraguayan harps and harp music have gained a worldwide reputation, with international influences alongside folk traditions. Mexican "jarocha" harp music of Veracruz has also gained some international recognition, evident in the popularity of "la bamba". In southern Mexico (Chiapas), there is a very different indigenous style of harp music. Travel between the ports of Veracruz and Venezuela afforded an opportunity for transmission of harp traditions between these areas.^{[citation needed]}

In Venezuela, there are two distinct traditions, the arpa llanera and the arpa central (or arpa mirandina). The modern Venezuelan arpa llanera has 32 strings of nylon (originally, gut). The arpa central is strung with wire in the higher register. An authoritative source in Spanish is Fernando Guerrero Briceno, El Arpa en Venezuela (The Harp in Venezuela).^{[citation needed]}

Paraguayan harps have a wide and deep soundbox which tapers to the top. Like Baroque harps, but unlike modern Western harps, they do not stand upright when unattended. The harp is Paraguay's national instrument. It has about 36 strings. Its spacing is narrower and tension lighter than that of modern Western harps. It is played with the fingernails.^{[citation needed]}

Africa[link]

African kora - a double-bridge-harp-lute.

A Mangbetu man playing a mangbetu harp.