Muskeget Island and

There is one gray seal stock in the western North Atlantic; it ranges from New England to Labrador and is centered in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Katona et l. 1993; Davies 1957). This stock i separated by both geography and differences in the breeding season from the eastern Atlantic stock (Bonner 1981). The western Atlantic stock is distributed and breeds principally in eastern Canadian waters; however, small numbers of animals and pupping have been observed on several isolated islands along the Maine coast and in Nantucket-Vineyard Sound, Massachusetts (Katona et al. 1993; Rough 1995; J. R. Gilbert, pers. comm.). POPULATION SIZE Estimates of the total western Atlantic gray seal population are not available; however, four estimates of portions of the stock are available for Sable Island, the Maine coast, and Muskeget Island (Nantucket) and Monomoy, (Cape Cod) Massachusetts (Table 1). The 1986 population estimate for individuals on Sable Island, Nova Scotia that are one year old and older was between 100,000 and 130,000 animals (Stobo and Zwanenburg 1990). The 1993 estimate of the Sable Island and Gulf of St. Lawrence stocks was 143,000 animals (Mohn and Bowen 1994). The population in waters off Maine has increased from about 30 in the early 1980's to between 500-1,000 animals in 1993 (J. R. Gilbert, pers. comm.). Maximum counts of individuals at a winter breeding colony on Muskeget Island, west of Nantucket Island obtained during the spring molt did not exceed 13 in any year during the 1970s, but rose to 61 in 1984, 192 in 1988, 503 in 1992, an