Hugging the Ice

Photograph by David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes, National Geographic

In a picture that appears in the May 2014 issue of National Geographic magazine, a lone harp seal hugs thinning ice near the Madeleine Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Pups spend their first month on an ice floe, a precarious nursery as ice shrinks in the gulf.

Hear David Doubilet speak about his passion for underwater photography » Read about Jennifer Hayes's encounter with a harp seal »