Results from this study suggest that the morphometric
method is also appropriate for estimating body composition
in crabeater seals. It is also a simple, non-invasive
procedure that can be used easily to monitor the condition
of crabeater seals. In other phocids species, both methods
have proven to be powerful tools is assessing body
condition (Slip et al., 1992; Gales and Renouf, 1994; Gales
et al., 1994). In order to determine how accurately they
assess body composition both methods would need to be
tested empirically and equations calculated specifically for
crabeater seals (Reilly and Fedak, 1990; Gales et al., 1994).
However, that was beyond the scope of this study. For the
remainder of the analyses only percentage blubber
determined using the ultrasound/morphometric method
was used because the two methods were comparable and
that allowed for a larger sample size.