How many hooded seals are left?

Valued for their fur, meat, and blubber, ringed seals are also hunted by humans. Hunting often occurs in conjunction with efforts to capture common seals. Trade in ringed seal products has been banned by the European Union since 1983. However, other countries (such as Canada) allow limited hunting by indigenous peoples and commercial interests. However, there are concerns that the projected loss of Arctic sea ice due to global warming could significantly reduce their habitat, leading to population declines.

To manage hooded seals in U.S. waters, we have grouped them into the Western North Atlantic stock. Based on the most recent survey, our scientists estimate that this stock contains approximately 594,000 seals.

Male hooded seals are about 8 feet (2.4 m) long and weigh about 400 to 550 pounds (180 to 250 kg), while females are about 6 feet (1.8 m) long and weigh about 370 to 650 pounds (140 to 290 kg). Both adult males and females have silvery-gray fur with dark spots of varying sizes and shapes on their bodies.

Hooded seals have a flexible cavity, or hood, on their nose. This cavity is made up of two parts, or lobes. Adult males can expand and extend this hood so that it extends over their face. Sexually mature males have a unique septum on their nose that, when inflated, looks like a pinkish-red balloon. 

Hooded seal pups have a bluish-gray fur on their backs and white bellies. This beautiful fur has earned them the nickname "bluebacks" and once made them a target for hunting. The pups shed their bluish-gray fur when they are 14 months old.

The shift in the 1940s to killing seals for their fur led to heavy hunting on the front lines, especially of "blueback" hooded seals (younger than 14 months old), whose fur is highly prized. In 1983, in response to public pressure, the European Economic Community banned the import of blue seal products. This led to a decline in hunting, and commercial hunting of blue seals in Canada has been banned since 1987, although it is still permitted to kill seals for personal use. However, the illegal killing of these young seals continues, with 22,846 blue seals seized by Canadian authorities in 1996 after they were illegally killed during commercial seal hunting. Canadian seal hunters are seeking to have the ban lifted.