Arctic Report Card Ice Seals from Alaska Department of Fish and Game (2024)

Climate change in the Arctic is expected to affect sea ice-associated seal populations, or “ice seals,” by reducing sea ice extent and the length of time sea ice is available for resting, pupping, pup rearing, and molting (see essay Sea Ice). Four species of ice seals occupy the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas, west and north of Alaska and are harvested by Alaska Natives for subsistence: ringed (Pusa hispida), bearded (Erignathus barbatus), spotted (Phoca largha), and ribbon seals (Histriophoca fasciata) (Nelson et al. 2019; Fig. 1). Ringed and bearded seals were listed as ’Threatened’ under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 2012 due to concerns with predicted sea ice decline over the next century (U.S. Federal Register 2012a, b). Current populations of all four species are large (>100,000s) and the subsistence harvest for all four species is sustainable (Nelson et al. 2019). Sampling of the annual ice seal harvest, coordinated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has provided important information regarding seal population health and status since the 1960s. Coastal Indigenous communities that harvest seals provide measurements and tissues used to assess diet, body condition, age of maturity, pregnancy rate, and proportion of pups in the harvest. The longevity of this biomonitoring program allows for comparisons over time that provide insight into individual and population level responses to recent environmental changes.