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Where do harp seals live?
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seal
Crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophagus).
Harp seals are found on or near ice floes across the Arctic and northern Atlantic oceans, ranging from the Kara Sea in Russia westward to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada.1
They are organized into three distinct populations based on their primary breeding grounds:
- Northwestern Atlantic: The largest population, which breeds near the coast of Newfoundland and within the Gulf of St. Lawrence.1
- Barents Sea: A population that breeds on the ice-covered White Sea in northwest Russia.12
- Greenland/Jan Mayen: The smallest population, which mates primarily near Jan Mayen Island between Norway and eastern Greenland.1
While harp seals spend most of their lives in the water, they are migratory animals that move to northernmost Arctic waters during the summer and relocate to the southern limits of their range on pack ice to give birth, rear their young, and molt from late winter to early spring.12