Spotted Seal
Phoca Largha
•🦭🌊
Chordata
Mammalia
Carnivora
Caniformia
Phocidae
Phoca
Phoca Largha
Phoca is Latin for “seal,” while largha derives from a Russian transliteration of the Nanai (Amur River) word largha, meaning “spotted seal.”
An ice-edge seal of the northern Pacific, speckled like surf spray and woven into Arctic lifeways.
Description
The spotted seal is a true seal of the North Pacific Rim and adjacent Arctic waters, named for its distinct silver-gray coat marked with dark spots. Adults average 1.6–1.8 meters in length and weigh 70–110 kilograms. Adapted for cold, ice-associated life, they possess a thick blubber layer and short, sleek fur for insulation and streamlining. Unlike the closely related harbor seal, spotted seals are strongly associated with sea ice during breeding and molting seasons.
They feed primarily on fish (pollock, capelin, Arctic cod), squid, and crustaceans, often diving over 100 meters. Their behavior is shy and solitary compared to other pinnipeds, but mothers exhibit strong maternal bonds, nursing pups on ice floes for about four weeks.
Quick Facts
Max Mass
Shoulder Height
Standing Height
Length
Diet
Trophic Level
110
0.6
0.8
1.8
kg
m
m
m
Piscivore
Piscivore Fish Eater
Hunt History
Spotted seals have been integral to Arctic maritime cultures for millennia, providing meat, oil, and skins for clothing and kayak coverings. Their presence in archaeological sites links them to early sea-ice subsistence traditions.
Okhotsk Sea Coastal Sites, Sakhalin Island (≈5,000 years ago) – Midden deposits show spotted seal bones with butchery and burning traces, indicating organized seasonal hunts by early maritime cultures.
Nunalleq Site, Western Alaska (≈600 years ago) – Yup’ik settlement layers contain spotted seal remains with cutting tools and blubber lamps, showing their vital role in pre-contact Arctic subsistence.
Chukotka Peninsula, Russia (≈2,000 years ago) – Old Bering Sea culture sites preserve seal effigies and blubber-processing tools, with isotopic analysis confirming spotted seal oil residues.
Time & Range
Extinction Status
Extant
Extinction Date
Temporal Range
Region
0
BP
Late Pleistocene – Holocene
Northern Pacific and Arctic Oceans (Bering, Okhotsk, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas)
Fat Analysis
Fatness Profile:
High
Fat %
28
Est. Renderable Fat
30
kg
Targeted Organs
Subcutaneous Blubber, Omental Fat
Adipose Depots
Subcutaneous Blubber, Omental Fat, Perirenal Fat
Preferred Cuts
Subcutaneous Blubber
Hunt Difficulty (x/5)
3