A whitecoat is a newborn

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

grey seal The grey seal (''Halichoerus grypus'') is found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. In Latin Halichoerus grypus means "hook-nosed sea pig". It is a large seal of the family Phocidae, which are commonly referred to as "true seals" or " ...

with soft, white

fur Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...

From newborn to whitecoat

Newborn seals have yellow fur because of

amniotic fluid The amniotic fluid is the protective liquid contained by the amniotic sac of a gravid amniote. This fluid serves as a cushion for the growing fetus, but also serves to facilitate the exchange of nutrients, water, and biochemical products betwee ...

, and are still wet. When the pup dries, it is called a yellowcoat. The amniotic stain fades and the fur turns white within a few days, and it gets the name whitecoat. First it's called a ''thin whitecoat'', and when it becomes visibly fatter it is a ''fat whitecoat''. Nursing lasts for about 12 days. Cows frequently return to their pups to suckle. While she is suckling, the mother does not eat—rather, she draws on her reserves of fatty blubber to produce the milk. Pups grow rapidly, at the end of nursing, most pups weigh 36 kg (80 lbs) or more. The mothers then leave their fully fed pups and join the bulls to mate. At this age of about 12 days, pups first become "greycoats",Phoca groenlandica (Erxleben, 1777)

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

as grey juvenile coloring grows under their white fur, then "

ragged-jacket A ragged-jacket (or, occasionally, "raggedy-jacket") is the name given to a harp or grey seal pup when it is undergoing its first moult, and the intermediate stage between a "whitecoat" and a "beater Beater may refer to: Clothes * Beater (wea ...

s" when white fur begins to fall out in patches.

Hunting of whitecoats

The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

banned the hunting and import of whitecoats in 1972, through the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

banned the import of whitecoat products in 1983. Canada banned the offshore commercial hunting of whitecoats and bluebacks on December 30, 1987.

References

True seals Seal hunting {{carnivora-stub

From newborn to whitecoat

Hunting of whitecoats

See also

References