Range and Population Status
Although Weddell seals, crabeater seals and leopard seals are ubiquitous in Antarctic waters, the Ross seal is an uncommon and relatively unknown animal, considered to be the least common pack ice seal. It almost never leaves the Antarctic Ocean, with the very rare exception of stray animals found around sub-Antarctic islands, and uniquely, off the south coast of Australia. Nonetheless, its distribution is circumpolar, with individuals found in low densities - usually singly - in very thick pack ice in all regions of the continent.
The total Ross seal population is estimated at around 130,000 individuals, but there is great uncertainty in this estimate (reported 95% confidence intervals range from 20,000 to 227,000). Thus, very little is known about trends in the population.
Interactions with humans have been limited. They have been collected historically by Antarctic expeditions and for scientific collections. Their range does not generally overlap with commercial fishing.
Read more about this topic: Ross Seal
Famous quotes containing the words range, population and/or status:
“A girl must allow others to share the responsibility for care, thus enabling others to care for her. She must learn how to care in ways appropriate to her age, her desires, and her needs; she then acts with authenticity. She must be allowed the freedom not to care; she then has access to a wide range of feelings and is able to care more fully.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)
“[Madness] is the jail we could all end up in. And we know it. And watch our step. For a lifetime. We behave. A fantastic and entire system of social control, by the threat of example as effective over the general population as detention centers in dictatorships, the image of the madhouse floats through every mind for the course of its lifetime.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“The influx of women into paid work and her increased power raise a woman’s aspirations and hopes for equal treatment at home. Her lower wage and status at work and the threat of divorce reduce what she presses for and actually expects.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)