Tag: Marine mammal

The ribbon seal is a mid-sized seal species found throughout the Arctic and sub-arctic.

Young ribbon seals look like young harp seals. In the past, they were hunted too close to extinction, but Russia banned their hunting in 1969 and the population has bounced back to 250,000.

In March 2008, the USA government considered listing this species on the endangered list, unfortunately the government decided that climate change did not threaten the sea ice to remain – as a result they decided not to list the species IT IS TOTALLY RIDICULOUS THE USA GOVERNMENTS POSITION. In 2009 it was sued to reconsider, and in 2013 it decided once again that listing was not required.

There are 2 recognized subspecies, one in the Baltic sea and the other in North west and east of the Atlantic (this is the other common species found in UK waters.

There are a number of well known breeding colonies around the coast of the UK. Notable colonies in the UK, include Blakeny point in Norfolk, the Farne and Orkney islands. There is also colonies around the USA and Canada.

Around much of the world, the primary hunter is the Orca, though there are also a variety of sharks that will also take one if given the chance. Recent observations have also shown that they take harbour seals and porpoises if they get the chance.

There has also been a significant level of cannibalism where male seals kill pups of its own species.

The harbour seal is hugely widely spread around the northern hemisphere. Indeed, it is the widely spread pinniped species, found around the north of the Atlantic, Pacific Baltic and North seas.

The global population is thought to be 350,000-500,000 (though there is a subspecies Ungava in Northern Quebec which is endangered.

Populations in Greenland, Hokkaido and the Baltic sea are reducing, and so are threatened. Here populations have been greatly reduced or eliminated.

There are 5 recognized subspecies as they are spread so widely across the world.

There are roughly 100,000 seals in Europe, and about 30% of them are in UK waters.

Also known as the Larga or Largha seal, it is considered a true seal which inhabits the ice floes of North pacific ocean. There is a fear that global warming might reduce ice floes and therefore end this population, but thus-far it does not appear to have had any impact.

The bering sea population currently number around 100,000, with a second population of 100,000 in the sea of Japan. A third population of 3300 live in the LIadong bay in China,

It is not currently thought that climate change will impact sea ice enough to threaten the population in the near future.

One of the smallest seals, it is found exclusively along the shore and in the very salty Caspian sea. Evidence suggests that like similar populations, seals initially migrated along rivers, which have now ceased to exist, cutting them off from the rest of the world.

At various times, illnesses like canine distemper has swept through the population, killing thousands, but thankfully never wiping out the whole population.

100 years ago, the seal population was around 1.5 million. Through various problems from humans, such as reducing fish stocks, and various illnesses this population has dropped to its current level of around 70,000.

Increasing industrial activity has lead to an increase in chemicals that damage the seals in the water. It is thought that this is having an impact of reducing the seals capacity of fighting off diseases.

Sea eagles do predate young, and are known to kill quite a few.

A die-off of around 2500 happened in December 2022. At this time, it is not clear what caused this.

The ringed seal inhabits the Arctic and sub-arctic, and is fairly small rarely growing to more than 1.5m long.

It is the most abundant and widest ranging seal in the Northern hemisphere (it has 2 freshwater subspecies that live in Northern Europe). It is thought to have a global population of around 2 million.

They are one of the primary prey of both polar bears and killer whales.

There are 5 recognized subspecies (3 have been eradicated, as being to similar to others).

The two fresh water subspecies are found in lakes, one in lake Lodoga in North-western Russia – with a population of 2000-3000 (down from 20,000 in 1900), and the other in lake Saimaa in Finland – the 4th largest in Europe with an area of 1600 square miles with a current population of around 400 individuals. They have been cut off from other ringed seals for around 9500 years. In 1955, the population was thought to be around 150 so it has grown nicely, but whether its population will be allowed to grow any further is anyones guess.

Found in the Northern Atlantic, they are found from Svalbard in the east to the Gulf of St Laurence in the west.

They are known for the skin on their head, which is called a hood – males can inflate this during mating to impress the females.

Generally living on drift ice in the arctic ocean and the North Atlantic. Highly migratory, they have been recorded increasingly far south in recent decades, including France and Portugal, with several strandings in Spain. No-one has yet identified the reason for these increasingly long migrations – but as similar distances have been recorded in the USA, it is clearly a reason that effects much of the population. Before 1940 they were hunted widely, but only subsistence hunting occurs these days, and it is thought that provided nothing else is threatening the population it can manage this level of human predation.

With the increased population, 10,000 are culled each year, to keep the population under control

There are 4 known places that they breed, and generally live 30-35 years.

The North-west Atlantic population has been roughly stable over the last 60 years, but unfortunately the North-east Atlantic population has dropped 85-90% over the last 60 years.