CASE STUDY

Several species of seal live in the Arctic. Although their life cycles vary, many of them depend on ice as a pupping, moulting, and resting platform. Like other Arctic marine mammals, seals are adapted to a harsh environment (e.g., periods of low food availability and cold temperatures)1

4 Seals . I

The ringed seal, Pusa hispida, is by far the most abundant endemic seal species in the Arctic2

. It is unique in its ability

to maintain breathing holes in thick sea ice, and hence it occupies areas unreachable by other seals2

II . Other ice-dwelling

seal species include the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), the harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) and hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) in the North Atlantic; and the spotted seal (Phoca largha) and ribbon seal (Histriophoca fasciata) in the Pacific.

Seals have been important to humans since people settled in the Arctic. They have provided meat and oil for food, fuel for cooking and heating, and skins for clothing and boat covers. They continue to be an important subsistence animal for coastal-dwelling northern peoples, especially Russians, Native Alaskans, Arctic Canadians, and Greenlanders3

.

Seal hunting and processing are still culturally significant activities. The sharing of meat, oil, and skins of seals within a community provides social status to the hunters and needed nutrition and materials to recipients. Hunters from Arctic cultures have similar ways of showing respect to seals by honouring their spirit so that seals will continue to be plentiful and provide food for their communities. Seals harvested may also be sold in local markets, providing an economic value in remote areas where store-bought food is unaffordable on a

64 PROTECTING ARCTIC BIODIVERSITY

daily basis. Handicrafts from seal parts may be sold for money to buy items needed for hunting.

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, most Arctic seal species are currently evaluated as having a low risk of extinction, with the exception of the hooded seal4

.

Although the population in the northwest Atlantic is stable, the northern-most breeding population in the northeast Atlantic (West Ice) declined by 85–90% over the last 40–60 years. Even