Common Seal

Common or Harbour Seals (Phoca vitulina) are true seals of the Northern Hemisphere. Having the widest range of all pinnipeds, Common Seals are found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as those of the Baltic and North Seas.

Related Topics:
True seal - Northern Hemisphere - Pinniped - Atlantic - Pacific Ocean - Baltic - North Sea

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With an estimated 400,000-500,000 individuals, the total population of Common Seals is not threatened as a whole; each subspecies is more or less secure in numbers with possibly the Greenland, Hokkaido and Baltic Sea populations being the exceptions. Local populations have been reduced or eliminated through outbreaks of disease and conflict with humans, both unintentionally and intentionally. While it is legal to kill seals which are perceived to threaten fisheries in the United Kingdom, Norway and Canada, commercial hunting is illegal; the seals are also taken in subsistence hunting and accidentally as bycatch in fishing nets. In the United States it is illegal to kill these or any seals at all, as they fall under the Marine Mammals Protection Act. On the East Coast their numbers seem to be increasing quite steadily as they are reclaiming parts of their range, and have been seen as far south as Virginia.

Related Topics:
Human - Fisheries - United Kingdom - Norway - Canada - United States - Marine Mammals Protection Act - Virginia

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