Ringed Seal
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The Ringed Seal or Jar Seal is an earless seal inhabiting the Arctic coasts. Also referred to by the Inuit as the Netsik or nattiq, typical adults are 85 to 160 cm long and 40 to 90 kg. They are quite long-lived seals, up to 35 years. Estimates of its population range around the 5 million mark.
The populations living in different areas have evolved to separate subspecies, which are:
- Phoca hispida hispida: Arctic coasts of Europe, Russia, Canada and Alaska, including Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen, Greenland and Baffin Island.
- Phoca hispida krascheninikovi: North Bering Sea
- Phoca hispida ochotensis: Kamchatka, Okhotsk Sea and southward to 35°N, along the Japanese Pacific coast.
- Phoca hispida botnica Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia and Gulf of Finland
- Phoca hispida ladogensis (Ladoga Seal) Lake Ladoga
- Phoca hispida saimensis (Saimaa Ringed Seal, saimaannorppa). Lives only in Lake Saimaa in Finland and is one of the most threatened seals in the world with total population around 250 individuals.
Economic Importance
Examination of Early Paleoeskimo sites in Arctic Canada has demonstrated the deliberate hunting of juvenile and young adult ringed seals, probably in the fall and winter from frozen cracks and leads in the ice (Murray, 2005).
References
- Murray, M. S. (2005). Prehistoric Use of Ringed Seals: A Zooarchaeological Study from Arctic Canada. Environmental Archaeology 10 (1): 19-38
- Seal Specialist Group (1996). [Pusa hispida]. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
External links
See also
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