Rice (1998) listed two intergrading subspecies of Bearded Seals, Erignathus barbatus nauticus in the Pacific Ocean and peripheral seas and E. b. barbatus in the Atlantic Ocean and peripheral seas. The ranges of the two putative subspecies are thought to be divided near the central Canadian Arctic in the west and the Laptev Sea in the east, with the Atlantic subspecies occurring from the central Canadian Arctic east to the central Eurasian Arctic and the Pacific subspecies occurring from the Laptev Sea east to the central Canadian Arctic, including animals in the Sea of Okhotsk (Rice 1998). However, Burns (1981) noted that the boundaries between the subspecies have never been firmly established and he considered subspecific distinction to be an open question.

Geographical variation does exist in the calls of Bearded Seals across their range, suggesting some population substructure (Risch et al. 2007), and genetic studies support the recognition of two subspecies (Davis et al. 2008).

European regional assessment: Near Threatened (NT)

Bearded Seals are an ice-dependent Arctic species that has experienced dramatic declines in their sea ice habitats over the last three decades due to global warming. Bearded Seal mortalities were high in a recent unexplained mortality event (UME) in the Pacific Arctic that has been linked to sea ice losses, fortifying the general concern that disease risks are increasing for ice-seals with warming. Abundance data for Bearded Seals in the European Marine Assessment area are lacking, but data from acoustic monitoring suggest abundance declines in areas that have experienced a shift from Arctic to Atlantic water masses in the European Arctic. Ocean acidification, in addition to general concerns regarding both the direct (habitat) and indirect (food webs and human activities) impacts of global warming, are threats to Bearded Seals. Another concern for Bearded Seals is the likelihood that Arctic benthic production is expected to decline because of reduced fall-out from the sea-ice community during the spring/summer season melt. Increases in toxic algal blooms are also a concern. However, the Bearded Seal’s large body size and willingness to use land-based haul-outs when ice is not available might reduce the severity of sea ice losses for this species somewhat.

Given the recent declines in sea ice in the Arctic and the expectation that global warming-driven ice loss and other effects on benthic production and toxic algal blooms will continue in the coming decades, the Bearded Seal is assessed as Near Threatened under criteria A3ce on the basis of a suspected future population decline over the next 40 years (three generation lengths; 40.2 years) that will approach 30%, with increasing risks from pathogens and competition from species expanding northward. Whilst regional declines in vocalisations and sightings have been documented in the past 40 years, the overall decline suspected in the European Arctic is not thought to have reached the threshold for Vulnerable under Criterion A2 (i.e., the past three generation length period). The evaluation to list as Near Threatened is based on the precautionary principle given the uncertainty in the degree of decline, and the fact that categories Data Deficient and Least Concern are less likely (although equally plausible). Monitoring of population trends is needed for this species.

Bearded Seals are strongly associated with sea ice and are benthic feeders; these two attributes explain their general distribution patterns in shallow coastal shelf seas across the Arctic (Citta et al. 2018, Hamilton et al. 2022). In the European marine assessment area, Bearded Seals occur along the north shore of Iceland, along the whole eastern coast of Greenland, within the Svalbard Archipelago, in the drifting pack ice of the Barents Sea across to and including the islands in the Fran Josef Land Archipelago as well as across the mainland coast of the Russian Federation in the White, and Pechora seas and in coastal areas along the west of Novaya Zemlya (Kovacs 2018). Vagrants have been reported within Europe as far south as Portugal (van Bree 2000).

Elsewhere, in a global context, Bearded Seals have a patchy circumpolar distribution throughout much of the Arctic and sub-Arctic in West Greenland, Canada (Hudson Bay, Eastern Canadian Archipelago – south to Labrador), and in the Pacific Arctic throughout the shallow Beaufort-Bering-Chukchi region (including Alaskan coastal area), as well as in the Sea of Okhotsk, extending westward across the coast of the Siberian seas, through the Laptev and Kara Sea (in Russian) westward to the assessment boundary including the east coast of Novaya Zemlya. Vagrants (outside Europe) have been reported in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, northern Newfoundland, and in Massachusetts in the Northwest Atlantic (Gosselin and Boily 1994), as well as in Japan and China in the North Pacific (Rice 1998). While the species is not strictly migratory, Bearded Seals in the Beaufort-Bering-Chukchi region undergo seasonal movements linked with the advance and retreat of sea ice (Burns 1981, Cameron et al. 2010). However, in most Atlantic Arctic regions they are quite sedentary throughout the year, occupying relatively small coastal home ranges (e.g. Hamilton et al. 2018, 2021).

Population sizes and trends are unknown for Bearded Seals within the European marine assessment area (see Kovacs et al. 2021 for a summary). The species has never been surveyed in Svalbard or western Russian waters. In northeast Greenland some survey effort has been undertaken in the Northeast Water Polynya area (NEW) for marine mammals generally, with some few Bearded Seals sighting (eight in winter and 14 in summer) in quite vast areas (c. 9,000 and 30,000 km²), so a population estimate was not possible based on these data (NAMMCO 2023). The natural low density of Bearded Seals and the fact that they spend very little of their time hauled out outside the moulting season (5%; Hamilton et al. 2018) makes it very challenging to determine the abundance of this species. Additionally, numbers on the surface are heavily influenced by wind and temperature conditions as well as seasonal patterns (Hamilton et al. 2018, London et al. 2022; see Scherdin et al. 2022 for more details). However, their distinctive spring breeding calls are easily monitored using passive acoustic listening/recording networks and such data suggests that this species remains widespread in the Atlantic Arctic (Moore et al. 2012, Ahonen et al. 2017, Llobet et al. 2023).

In other parts of the world, Bearded Seal abundance has been estimated, though most reports note that there are many regional gaps and that the species is in fact data deficient. Additionally, many older estimates should be considered educated guesses as opposed to actual estimates. Heide-Jørgensen et al. (2013, 2016) produced estimates for Bearded Seals in the North Water Polynya in West Greenland of some 6,000 animals. This is likely an underestimate for this important hotspot, given that these authors applied a Ringed Seal haul-out correction factor of 41% and available data suggests that individual Bearded Seals spend much less time than this on the ice surface (Hamilton et al. 2018). Fuirst et al. (2023) provide a thorough review of Bearded Seal estimates in Canadian waters, concluding that data coverage is too fragmentary to provide a comprehensive abundance estimate or trend, but regional populations range from some hundreds to low thousands of animals.

Population estimation of Bearded Seals has received considerable effort in the Pacific Arctic. A comprehensive review by Cameron et al. (2010) concluded that combined estimates for all regions in the Pacific Arctic summed to some 250,000 animals. More recently, Ver Hoef et al. (2014) analysed line transect survey data from the Bering Sea collected in spring 2007 using a series of models and estimated there were 61,800 Bearded Seals (95% CI 34,900–171,600) in their study area. A lot of effort has gone into methods to extrapolate survey observations to abundance estimates in the broad Pacific region for ice-seals (Conn et al. 2014, 2015, 2016; McClintock et al. 2015, Sigler et al. 2015), but only estimates from Russian territories have been published to date (in the Russian scientific literature) from the large-scale survey efforts. These studies suggest 42,000 Bearded Seals occurred in the Russian parts of the Bering Sea and 14,590 (CV 31%) were in the Russian parts of the Chukchi and Eastern Siberian Sea (Chernook et al. 2018, 2019). Boveng (in NAMMCO 2023) suggested that the total population size for the Bering and Chukchi Sea was 500,000, but Conn and Trukhanova (2022) concluded that abundance estimates from the large-scale aerial surveys for Bearded Seals (and Ringed Seals) in particular should be interpreted with caution because of the lack of age-sex specific data for calculating correction factors; low area coverage (2%) and low numbers of sighting in vast areas are additional concerns. However, close-kin mark-recapture estimates for Bearded Seals in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas (Quakenbush, in NAMMCO 2023, citing Taras et al. 2023) also produce a large population estimate number - 409,000 (CV = 0.35). This region of shallow seas is undoubtedly a stronghold for Bearded Seal (Citta et al. 2018). Crance et al. (2022) found a year-round presence of Bearded Seals based on acoustics, throughout the Alaskan Chukchi and northern Bering Sea.

Bearded Seals are the largest northern phocid seal. Adult animals are on average 2.3 m (standard) in length and weigh an average of 275 kg. Females are slightly longer and (seasonally) substantially heavier than males (Burns 1981, Andersen et al. 1998). In spring females can weigh in excess of 400 kg (Kovacs and Lydersen 2006, Cameron et al. 2010). Bearded Seals naturally occur at quite low densities, and they are typically solitary animals, although they do form small, loose aggregations at times, particularly if sea ice is limited during the spring (Bengtson et al. 2005, Kovacs 2018).

In Svalbard, females reach sexual maturity at an age of five years, while males are six years of age when they are sexually mature though they are likely some years older before they compete successfully to breed (Andersen et al. 1999). In Alaskan waters, sexual maturity is reached between three and six years in females, with an average of four years (Quakenbush et al. 2011) and males reach sexual maturity at six to seven years (Burns 1981). Final body size in Bearded Seals is reached at approximately 9-10 years (McLaren 1958) with maximum longevity being 25-30 years (Cameron et al. 2010). Pups are born at an average length of 131 cm and an average weight of 37.1 kg (Burns 1981, Kovacs et al. 2020).

Bearded Seal pups are born on pack ice or small floes of annual ice (listed as 'Other' in the selected Habitats classification table) that fracture away from shore-fast ice as it breaks up in late spring (Kovacs et al. 1996, Kovacs and Lydersen 2006). They also have been documented to use glacier ice pieces floating on the sea for birthing and nursing when forced to by the lack of availability of first-year sea ice (Lydersen et al. 2014). The large precocial pups swim within hours of birth (Lydersen et al. 1994, 1996). Peak birthing occurs between late March and mid-May, varying somewhat across the Bearded Seal’s range (Burns 1981, Kovacs 2018). Gjertz et al. (2000) estimated that pups in Svalbard are weaned in approximately 24 days. Nursing might be somewhat shorter for the Pacific subspecies, Burns (1981) suggested that pups are weaned at 12-18 days of age (though longitudinal records for individuals are lacking for the Pacific subspecies). Prior to weaning, their aquatic skills develop to the degree that they spend about half their time in the water, diving for up to 5.5 minutes to depths of up to 84 m (Lydersen et al. 1994). Mothers spend over 80% of their time in the water while caring for a dependent pup (Lydersen and Kovacs 1999); about half that time is spent away from the neonate, presumably in foraging dives. Females haul-out to nurse their pups on average three times a day. The small amount of time mothers spend out of the water when pups are young is thought to be an adaptive response to Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) predation; when only the pup is on the surface, the pair is less conspicuous to hunting bears (Krafft et al. 2000). Diving depths during the nursing period generally reflect local bathymetry (Gjertz et al. 2000, Krafft et al. 2000). Mating takes place toward the end of lactation, similar to other phocid seals.

Bearded Seal males produce elaborate downward trilling vocalizations during the spring to display to females during their mating period. These “songs” can travel many kilometres and dominate the Arctic soundscape in spring across the species range (e.g. Ahonen et al. 2017, Heimrich et al. 2020, Llobet et al. 2023). Individual males use distinct songs and occupy the same territories over a series of consecutive years within constraints imposed by variable ice conditions, or they show a roaming strategy (Van Parijs et al. 2001, 2003, 2004). Males also exhibit aggressive behaviour to each other during breeding, including bubble-blowing and physical combat, so the mating system is presumably polygynous to some degree. Bearded Seals from different regions exhibit strong dialect differences in their songs and acoustic repertoires (Risch et al. 2007, Charrier et al. 2013).

Following the spring nursing and mating periods, weaned pups disperse along coastlines in Svalbard, sometimes going offshore into ice-filled waters for periods of some days before returning to waters over the coastal shelf, and then settling into areas where they remain resident at least the rest of the first year of life (Hamilton et al. 2019), and likely beyond this time. Diving skill develops over the first weeks of life, stabilizing to adult-like abilities by the time pups are about 50 days old. However, pups lack the highly specialised behaviour patterns displayed by adults in terms of movement patterns. Adult Bearded Seals appear to be highly specialised feeders at the level of the individual, remaining in small ranges and following set paths between resting and foraging areas, despite the species being considered a generalist forager (Hamilton et al. 2018, 2019). Bearded Seals feed primarily on or near the bottom and most diving is to depths of less than 100 m (though dives of adults have been recorded up to 300 m and young-of-the-year have been recorded diving down to almost 500 m; Gjertz et al. 2000). They use their elaborate whiskers to search for food items on and in soft bottom substrates and have powerful suction abilities to extract prey (Marshall et al. 2006, 2008). The diet of Bearded Seals varies by age, location, and season (see Lowry et al. 1980). Polar Cod (Boreogadis saida), Sculpins, Spider Crab, and Shrimps (Sabinea sptemcarinatus and Sclerocrangon boreas) are the most frequent prey items in Svalbard (Hjelset et al. 1999). However, various Cod species and other demersal fish, and worms are also regular components of the diet. A wide variety of prey has been reported from the Pacific Arctic. Quakenbush et al. (2011) analyzed the frequency of occurrence of prey in 943 Bearded Seal stomachs collected from the Bering and Chukchi Seas during 1960-2009 and identified 213 different prey taxa. The most commonly eaten groups were Crabs, Shrimps, Clams, Snails, benthic and demersal fishes, and echiuroid worms. These authors found a significant increase in consumption of gadid fishes, principally Polar Cod (also known as Arctic cod in North America) and Saffron Cod (Eleginus gracilis), from the 1960s to the 2000s.

Bearded Seals have an extended moulting period and animals can be found shedding hair from April to August, though there appears to be a peak in May/June for both subspecies (Burns 1981, Gjertz et al. 2000). During the moult they spend much of their time hauled out and are reluctant to enter the water (Kovacs and Lydersen 2006). Bearded Seals use sea ice as a haulout platform on a year-round basis whenever it is available, preferring small and medium-sized floes and generally avoiding large floes (Simpkins et al. 2003). However, they will haul out on land in the summer in the absence of sea ice (e.g., Merkel et al. 2013, Olnes et al. 2020). They are rarely found more than a body length from access to water even if hauled out on land (Kovacs 2018).

Bearded Seals are preyed upon by Polar Bears, Killer Whales (Orcinus orca), sleeper sharks, and Walruses (Lowry and Fay 1984, Lowry et al. 1987, Kovacs and Lydersen 2006, Kovacs 2018).

Global climate warming is currently causing major reductions in the extent and duration of sea ice cover in the Arctic, creating a threat to all ice-associated marine mammals. Bearded Seals are dependent on sea ice for pupping, moulting, resting, and access to foraging areas (Laidre et al. 2008, 2015; Huntington et al. 2016, 2017; Kovacs 2011, 2012, 2018, 2021). Increasing disease risks with a warming climate is a major concern; Bearded Seals experienced significant mortality during a recent UME (unexplained mortality event) in the Pacific Arctic (Vanwormer et al. 2019, Barratclough et al. 2023). Declines in calling rates have been detected in areas where Atlantic Water intrusions are increasingly common in areas where Arctic Water prevailed some decades ago in the Atlantic Arctic (Llobet et al. 2021) and sightings rates have declined in the southern parts of Svalbard (while increasing in the northern parts of the archipelago; Bengtsson et al. 2021). Increases in toxic algal blooms in the Arctic are a special concern for the benthically-feeding Bearded Seal in a climate change context, as are reductions in benthic production (Grebmeier et al. 2018, Hendrix et al. 2021).

Increasing development and industrialisation of the Arctic may threaten Bearded Seals in several ways. Oil spills from offshore extraction and transportation could negatively affect them through direct contact with oil and damage to foraging areas and stocks of prey, particularly benthic invertebrates, that are vulnerable to oil contamination. An increase in human-created noise in the Arctic could cause marine mammals, including Bearded Seals that are very vocal during their breeding season, to abandon areas of habitat they otherwise might use. Increased shipping will pose a greater threat of marine accidents and disturbance of marine mammals. Cameron et al. (2010) concluded that these factors could constitute low to moderate threats to Bearded Seals.

Hunting by indigenous peoples continues throughout most of the species’ range. There is no evidence of population-level impacts from hunting. Reports from Alaska Native subsistence hunters do not give any indication that Bearded Seal numbers have declined (Quakenbush et al. 2011) and Nelson et al. (2019) assessed Alaskan harvests as sustainable.

Indigenous peoples of the Arctic have hunted Bearded Seals for subsistence for thousands of years, a practice that continues today throughout much of the species’ range. In the European marine assessment area Bearded Seals are harvested in the hundreds in Greenland annually (Garde 2013), and smaller hunts take place in northern Iceland and Svalbard (see NAMMCO marine mammal catch database). Bearded Seals are also harvested in the White Sea; the scale of this harvest is not known.

The former Soviet Union conducted ship-based commercial harvests of Bearded Seals in the Bering, Chukchi, and Okhotsk Seas. Harvests grew from 9,000 to 13,000 for the Bering and Okhotsk seas combined during 1957-1964, and were 8,000 to 10,000 per year from 1964-1967 (Reeves et al. 1992). Ship-based harvests were suspended from 1970 to 1975 and have taken place at lower levels when they were resumed (Kelly 1988). It is not thought that commercial harvests occur in the Russian part of the EMA area, they are restricted to the Russian North Pacific, but available information on this activity is limited.

Norway listed Bearded Seals on the national Red List in 2021 (as Near Threatened) because of the threats posed to the species through habitat deterioration due to global warming (Eldegard et al. 2021). However, licensed hunters can shoot Bearded Seals in Svalbard, outside protected areas and during open seasons, that are set in periods when Bearded Seals shot in the water are least likely to sink (Kovacs and Lydersen 2006). Bearded Seals are able to use glacier ice pieces that have calved into the sea as haul-out platforms, so tidal glacier fronts are increasingly important to them in areas where sea ice declines are marked and where tide-water glaciers are common (Lydersen et al. 2014). Such glacier fjords occur mainly in East Greenland, Svalbard and Frans Josef Land i.e. in the European Mammal Assessment Area. These areas might represent important breeding refugia for some time to come, so should be considered for special conservation status. Throughout Russia, including the European Assessment Area, the “Law of Fisheries and Preservation of Aquatic Resources” provides for subsistence harvest of seals by aboriginal Russian peoples, including Bearded Seals.

The species is included on Annex V (animal and plant species of community interest whose taking in the wild and exploitation may be subject to management measures) of the EU Habitats Directive, and on Appendix III (protected fauna species) of the Bern Convention (Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada assessed this species in Canada as being of high priority conservation concern. In the USA they are listed on as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (Federal Registry 2012 - ESA 77 FR 76740) because of the threats from climate change (Cameron et al. 2010). This has resulted in a Designation of Critical Habitat for the Beringia Bearded Seal Population (Federal Register 2022). The Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits the taking of Bearded Seals except for Alaska Native subsistence hunts or for production of handicrafts.

Both the research community and Arctic indigenous knowledge holders call for changing ice concentrations to be considered in the management and conservation of this species (Gryba et al. 2021, Kovacs et al. 2021).

Further habitat and population monitoring is recommended.