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The uniquely patterned ribbon seal, long the most elusive and least understood of the true seals, is breathtakingly beautiful with its slender body, huge black eyes, and striking bands of white fur. It also has a special affinity for the ice, using the edge of the sea ice in Alaskan and Russian seas for rearing pups, molting, and resting. But as global warming accelerates, so does the alteration of the species’ sea-ice habitat. Without sufficient ice, this pretty pinniped will be more than elusive: it could be lost forever.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Not listed
PETITIONED: 2007
RANGE: The Sea of Okhotsk, northern Sea of Japan, Bering Sea, eastern Chukchi Sea, and western Beaufort Sea
THREATS: Loss and degradation of sea-ice habitat caused by global warming, oil and gas development, shipping activity, pollution, hunting, bycatch mortality, and competition with fisheries for prey
POPULATION TREND: The current population status of ribbon seal populations is unknown because recent censuses have not been conduced. In its most recent 2007 draft stock assessment, the National Marine Fisheries Service reported a global population size of 240,000 individuals, with an estimate of 90,000 to 100,000 ribbon seals in the Bering Sea.
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SAVING THE RIBBON SEAL
Though ribbon seals have always been threatened by many human activities, including shipping, oil and gas development, and even hunting, they’re now facing the worst danger of all: global warming. As greenhouse gas emissions cause temperatures to rise, the seals’ winter sea-ice habitat is rapidly melting away — in fact, scientists predict that by mid-century, sea ice in the species’ range will have declined by 40 percent. Among other devastating results, this would leave the seal without enough ice to finish rearing pups, leading to widespread pup mortality.
To ensure the ribbon seal’s perseverance, the Center submitted a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December 2007 requesting federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Responding to our petition a few months later, the Service announced that it would review the status of the ribbon seal as well as that of three other ice-dependent seals. The ribbon seal and its pinniped peers have now joined a growing group of cold-adapted species — including the polar bear, yellow-billed loon, American pika, and 12 types of penguins — in line for federal protection from global warming.
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Contact: Shaye Wolf
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