| Northeast Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and the Arctic: Svalbard, Hudson Bay and Strait (Canada), Bering and Baltic Seas (Ref. 1394). Pusa hispida hispida: Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea, North Pole, James Bay and Baffin Island (Nunavut), Strait of Belle Isle (Newfoundland), Greenland, Barents Sea, Norway, White Sea, Kamchatka, Bristol Bay in Alaska, and vagrant to Azores, Germany, Portugal, New Jersey, Southern California; Pusa hispida botnica: Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia and Finland, Sweden, Latvia; Pusa hispida ladogensis: Russia, Gulf of Finland, Lake Ladoga, White Sea; Pusa hispida saimensis: Finland; Pusa hispida ochotensis: Sea of Okhotsk, Japan, Russia, Kamchatka, and vagrant to Jiangsu, China (Ref. 1522). Climate: Circumpolar, subtropical, boreal. |
| Feeds on fishes and planktonic crustaceans (Ref. 1394). Incidental injuries and death of this species are caused by commercial fishing gears, i.e., flatfish trawl, pollock trawl, cod trawl, and cod longline (Ref. 118427). Typically stays in ice-covered waters year-round (Ref. 117965). Feeds on fishes (Ref. 1394) and planktonic crustaceans like pelagic amphipods and mysids (Ref. 117965). |
