SealS Range State Policy and Management Review Occasional Paper of the IUCN Species Survival Commission No. 55 About IUCN IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges. IUCN’s work focuses on valuing and conserving nature, ensuring effective and equitable governance of its use, and deploying nature-based solutions to global challenges in climate food and development. IUCN supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world, and brings governments, NGOs, the UN and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice. IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization, with almost 1,300 government and NGO Members and more than 15,000 volunteer experts in 185 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by almost 1,000 staff in 45 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. http://www.iucn.org IUCN Species Survival Commission The Species Survival Commission (SSC) is the largest of IUCN’s six volunteer commissions with a diverse global membership of nearly 10,000 experts. With biodiversity loss as one of the world’s most pressing crises, and many species declining to critical levels, the SSC drives its efforts and expertise to conserving nature through positive and informed action. This is achieved through the strength of its dedicated science- based network of volunteer experts, who constitute the invaluable “power house” of the SSC. Web: http:// www.iucn.org/ssc IUCN Commission on Environment, Economics and Social Policy CEESP, the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, is an interdisciplinary network of professionals whose mission is to act as a source of advice of the environmental, economic, social and cultural factors that affect natural resources and biological diversity, and to provide guidance and support towards effective policies and practices in environmental conservation and sustainable development. http://www.iucn.org/ceesp IUCN SSC/CEESP Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group The SSC/CEESP Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group is a global, volunteer, expert network formed by IUCN as a joint initiative of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) and the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP). Bridging the social and biological strengths of SSC and CEESP, it is uniquely placed to provide credible, sound technical advice on sustainable use and livelihoods. SULi’s misison is to promote both conservation and livelihoods through enhancing equitable and sustainable use of wild species and their associated ecosystems. http://iucn.org/suli SealS Range State Policy and Management Review SealS Range State Policy and Management Review Author Information: David H. M. Cumming Honorary Professor, Percy Fitzpatrick Institute, University of Cape Town / Research Associate, Tropical Resource Ecology, University of Zimbabwe 19 Walmer Drive, Highlands Harare, Zimbabwe The designation of geographical entities in this book, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IUCN, the European Union, the ACP Secretariat or the compilers concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. This publication has been produced with the support of the International Fur Federation. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN, the European Union, the ACP Secretariat, the International Fur Federation, or other participating organizations. Published by: IUCN, Gland, Switzerland Copyright: © 2015 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of this publication for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Citation: Cumming, D. H. M. (2015). Seal Range State Policy and Management Review. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN SSC/CEESP Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group. xiv + 94pp. ISBN: DOI: Front Cover: Colony of cape fur seals from Cape Point, Namibia. © Davide Guidolin Back Cover: Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) in the Canadian Arctic. © Raldi Somers Layout and printing by: Conservation Visions Inc. Available from: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Global Species Programme Rue Mauverney 28 1196 Gland Switzerland Tel +41 22 999 0000 Fax +41 22 999 0002 www.iucn.org/publications Also available at https://portals.iucn.org/library Seal Range State Policy and Management Review v SUMMARY Seals have been harvested and their products (furs, oils and meat) used by humans for thousands of years. However, large-scale commercial sealing is a comparatively recent development. It began in the 17th century and reached a peak in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the northern hemisphere, northern fur seals and harp seals were the main targets of these harvests. The primary products were pelts and oil. Annual catches exceeded 300,000 northern fur seals in the late 1860s, and more than 700,000 harp seals in the 1920s and 1950s. In the southern oceans, sealing for various fur seal species collapsed by the 1920s as a result of over-exploitation. Presently, sustainable commercial harvesting of seals (mainly harp seals) by Canada takes place by in the western North Atlantic and by Norway in the Greenland Sea. Cape fur seals are harvested commercially on the coast of Namibia. Indigenous peoples living in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and in arctic coastal areas harvest several species of seals. This harvest represents an integral component of both their household economies and culture. The primary objective of this study is to survey range state policies and management responses to growing or abundant seal populations. The management of seals1 and related policies in Antarctica, the European Union (EU) and six range states, all of which include abundant or growing populations of seals, are reviewed. The range states are Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States of America (USA), which have territories bordering on the Arctic, and Namibia in the southern hemisphere. Eight seal species are included in this review, six of which inhabit northern areas including harp (Pagophilus groenlandicus), hooded (Cystophora cristata), northern fur (Callorhinus ursinus), grey (Halichoerus grypus), harbour (Phoca vitulina) and ringed (Pusa hispida) seals, while two species inhabit southern areas, namely, Cape fur (Arctocephalus pusillus) and crabeater (Lobodon carcinophagus) seals. Harp, crabeater and ringed seals are the most abundant of the eight species included in this review, and account for about 75% of the global combined population of approximately 23 million seals within these eight species worldwide. Harp seals are distributed in three populations. The largest is the Northwest Atlantic population of 7.5 million that moves between the Gulf of St Lawrence and Baffin Bay from which an average of ~ 150,000 seals/year have been harvested over the last five years. The second population in the Greenland Sea is estimated to number 627,000 with an annual take of 5,000 to 8,000 a year in the West Ice (off Jan Mayen) by Norway. The third population breeds in the White Sea (or East Ice); it is estimated to number some 1.36 million seals. However, no commercial harvests have taken place in the Barents and White seas by Russia since 2009, or by Norway since 2012 where an annual take of 7,000 was allocated. Animals from the West and East Ice breeding areas mix during the summer in the Northern Barents Sea, but return to their respective breeding areas. The species is listed as ‘Least Concern’ by IUCN. Hooded seals are also found in three populations, one in “The Front” (off Newfoundland), another in Davis Strait and a third in the West Ice (near Jan Mayen in the Northeast Atlantic). The Canadian population was last censused in 2005 with an estimate of 593,500 and an annual take of less than 5,000 from a total allowable catch (TAC) of 8,200. The average number of hooded seals taken annually in Greenland was 5,867 between 1993 and 2009. The Northeast Atlantic hooded seal population has declined by 85-90% over the last few decades, and a zero quota for the commercial harvest has been in place since 2008. The species is classified as ‘Vulnerable’ by IUCN, and is classified as ‘Not at Risk’ in Canada. Northern fur seals occur across the North Pacific Ocean. Their numbers have been declining for several years along with several other pinniped species in the North Pacific, probably due to a climate induced regime shift. The most recent estimate (2013) for the fur seal stock in the Eastern Pacific is 639,545. The 1 In the context of this report “seals” refers to true seals and fur seals and excludes sea lions and walruses Seal Range State Policy and Management Review vi species is classified as ‘depleted’ under the USA Marine Mammal Protection Act and as ‘Vulnerable’ by IUCN. Grey seals are distributed in the North Atlantic in three main sub-populations, namely, in the West Atlantic (Gulf of Maine, Gulf of St Lawrence and northward to southern Labrador), in the East Atlantic centred on the United Kingdom (UK), and in the Baltic Sea. All populations are considered to be growing with an overall abundance estimate of ~ 550,000 seals. Grey seals are increasingly being implicated in seal-fisheries conflicts and commercial harvests are taken in Canada with an annual take of up to 5,000. In Norway the annual average take was 302 between 2008 and 2012. The IUCN status for the species is ‘Least Concern’. Grey seals are protected in Greenland waters, where they are extremely rare. Harbour seals are widely distributed in coastal waters of the northern hemisphere and, although some subspecies are in small and declining populations, overall the species is considered to be stable or increasing.