Ribbon Seals May Join Polar Bears As Soon To Be Homeless

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service, acting on a request by the Center for Biological Diversity, agreed last week to determine by the end of the year whether the little-known Ribbon seal (Histriophoca fasciata) should be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The consideration for protection is based on imminent threats from the effects of arctic habitat loss due to climate change, as well as threats from hunting, and environmental contamination due to oil and gas development and production. Commercial fishing and climate change may also be affecting the food supply of the Ribbon seal.

In a statement issued last Wednesday, Brendan Cummings, the Center for Biological Diversity's oceans program director, said the Ribbon seal's winter sea-ice habitat is projected to decline 40 percent by midcentury under greenhouse gas emissions models. "Any remaining sea ice will be much thinner and unlikely to last long enough for Ribbon seals to finish rearing their pups, leading to widespread pup mortality," Cummings said.

Looking a lot like the Belted Galloway of the sea, Ribbon seals live in the Arctic parts of the Pacific Ocean. During winter and spring, they haul-out on pack ice to breed, molt, and give birth. During this time, it is found at the ice front in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. During the rest of the year, Ribbon seals live in open water. Because the Ribbon seal is often so far from land and human observation, little is known about their habits.

Its diet consists almost exclusively of pollock, eelpout, arctic cod and cephalopods such as squid or octopus. Unlike many other pinnipeds, the Ribbon seal is solitary and does not appear to congregate in colonies or herds.