Portraits of Planet Ocean: Harp Seal

As polar ice sheets break away and return less and less each year, harp seals such as this one from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, face increasing challenges to maintain stable populations. This image is one of five photographs selected by the public to appear in “Portraits of Planet Ocean: The Photography of Brian Skerry,” which opens Sept. 17, 2013 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Sant Ocean Hall.