Ribbon Seal
Histriophoca fasciata
🎀🦭
Chordata
Mammalia
Carnivora
Pinnipedia
Phocidae
Histriophoca
Histriophoca fasciata
From Greek histion (“sail” or “ribbon”) and phoca (“seal”), referring to its striking ribbon-like white bands encircling the body.
A sleek Arctic seal with bold white “ribbons” of fur — the Ribbon Seal moves through Bering Sea ice like living calligraphy.
Description
The Ribbon Seal is one of the most visually distinctive pinnipeds, easily identified by its dark, almost black coat marked by four wide, white bands wrapping around its neck, foreflippers, and hindquarters. Adults reach 1.5–1.7 meters in length and can weigh up to 90–110 kilograms.
Unlike many seals, the Ribbon Seal spends most of its life in the open sea, preferring drifting pack ice of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. It’s a solitary and elusive animal, rarely seen hauled out on land. It feeds mainly on fish (such as pollock and Arctic cod) and cephalopods (squid and octopus).
Quick Facts
Max Mass
Shoulder Height
Standing Height
Length
Diet
Trophic Level
110
1.7
kg
m
m
m
Piscivore
Piscivore
Hunt History
Ribbon Seals were occasionally hunted by Yupik, Chukchi, and Koryak peoples, though less commonly than bearded or ringed seals. Their pelts were used for ceremonial garments due to their unusual pattern, and the blubber rendered for oil. Archaeological finds from coastal Chukotka and St. Lawrence Island show Phocidae bones consistent with this species in late Holocene middens (~2000–500 BP).
As an open-ice specialist, it was less targeted than ice-edge seals, but its ecological role paralleled them in energy transfer between pelagic fish and Arctic predators (humans, orcas, polar bears).
Time & Range
Extinction Status
Extant
Extinction Date
Temporal Range
Region
0
BP
Late Pleistocene – Holocene – Present (native to Arctic seas since ~0.1 Ma)
Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, northern Japan to Chukchi Sea, and western Alaska.
Fat Analysis
Fatness Profile:
High
Fat %
35
Est. Renderable Fat
35
kg
Targeted Organs
Subcutaneous Blubber, Omental Fat
Adipose Depots
Subcutaneous Blubber
Preferred Cuts
Subcutaneous Blubber
Hunt Difficulty (x/5)
3