The Davis Strait - DCE - Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi

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that establish territories in ice covered areas, whereas the juvenile seals
mainly spend the winter in areas with loose unconsolidated sea ice.
The catches in the assessment area have been around 3,000 animals per year
since 2003 (this has been a warm period). Catches were, however, about
three times higher during the last cooling period in the 1990s when the packice
from the Davis Strait was closer to the coast and the extent of sea ice in
the fjords was larger.
Conservation status: The ringed seals in general have a favuorable conservation
status, because they have a relatively uniform and widespread circumpolar
distribution, which prevents overexploitation on an overall population
level. Ringed seals are listed as of Least Concern (LC) on the Greenland Red
List.
Sensitivity: Breeding ringed seals depend on stable sea ice during the 2
months when they give birth and nurse their pups. This stationary behaviour
makes them vulnerable to disturbance and particularly to activities
that can disrupt the stable ice. However, ringed seals were not particularly
shy towards seismic operations in Arctic Canada, where they showed only
little avoidance of the ships (Lee et al. 2005). Ringed seals can be affected by
oil spills in the same way as all other seals (i.e. tissue damage and poisoning).
Figure 4.8.5. Ringed seal lair with pup. Picture of a display in the zoological museum in Copenhagen (Photo Aqqalu Rosing-
Asvid).