Harbour seal

Population

With an estimated 5 million to 6 million individuals, the population is not threatened as a whole; most subspecies are secure in numbers, with the Greenland, Hokkaidō and Baltic Sea populations being exceptions. Local populations have been reduced or eliminated through outbreaks of disease (especially the phocine distemper virus) and conflict with humans, both unintentionally and intentionally, has also been linked to common seal declines. While it is legal to kill seals which are perceived to threaten fisheries in the United Kingdom, Norway and Canada, commercial hunting is illegal; the seals are also taken in subsistence hunting and accidentally as by catch in fishing nets. Seals in the United Kingdom are protected by the 1970 Conservation of Seals Act, which prohibits killing them in most circumstances. In the United States, alternative protection applies and it is illegal to kill any seals or any marine mammals, as they fall under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. On the East Coast of the United States, their numbers seem to be increasing quite steadily as they are reclaiming parts of their range, and have been seen as far south as Florida.
Female common seals have a life span of 30–35 years, while male life spans are usually 20-25