Dr. Courtney Shuert is Conservation Programs Manager at Assiniboine Park Conservancy in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she studies Arctic marine mammals and how they respond to environmental change. A behavioral ecologist and ecophysiologist, she has worked with seals and sea lions across the North Pacific, Arctic and North Atlantic for nearly 15 years. Her research explores how individual animals balance behavior, energy demands and survival. She earned her Ph.D. at Durham University studying gray seals and is also an adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba.

Her current research focuses on the growing population of harbor seals around Churchill and western Hudson Bay. In partnership with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dr. Shuert and her colleagues investigate where these seals travel, how they use rivers and coastal waters, and what their changing distribution could mean for freshwater fish and the wider ecosystem. Understanding how seals use these habitats provides important baseline information as climate change reshapes Arctic environments.

In the field, the team captures harbor seals and fits them with satellite transmitters that record their movements and diving behavior; transmitters remain attached until the seals molt, when they naturally fall off. Tracking has revealed surprisingly extensive river use: among 22 seals studied, one traveled approximately 200 kilometers up the Seal River three separate times. Dr. Shuert also uses biologging devices to measure activity and physiological responses, providing a window into animals’ lives when researchers cannot observe them directly. By revealing how seals move, behave and respond to environmental pressures, her research helps scientists anticipate how Arctic marine mammals may adapt as their habitats change.