Weather Effects on the Haul‐Out Behaviour of Ringed Seals in the Amundsen Gulf

Ringed seals ( Pusa hispida ) use sea ice year‐round in the Arctic as a platform for giving birth, raising young and moulting. Arctic ringed seal population assessments are typically conducted by aerial surveys flown in the spring, when many seals haul out. However, many factors can influence whether a seal is hauled out on the ice and available for detection. Understanding the environmental factors that impact ringed seal haul‐out behaviour will reduce bias in aerial surveys. We deployed camera traps near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada in mid‐May 2023, 2024 and 2025 facing open water leads in the sea ice to document haul‐out behaviour of ringed seals under varying weather conditions. We used generalized additive mixed models to analyse the presence/absence and number of ringed seals hauled out. We found that high temperatures (> −4.3°C), low wind speeds (< 20 km/h), and high barometric pressure systems (101.4–101.8 kPa) increased the probability and number of ringed seals hauling out. We also found that haul‐outs occurred at lower temperatures under conditions of low and moderate wind speeds, and that the number of seals hauled out increased at lower temperatures at low wind speeds. We identify specific ‘ideal weather’ parameters for aerial surveys, which will reduce availability bias when calculating density and abundance estimates.