Most seals live in cold waters around Antartica and the Artic. Different types of seals live in different types of ways and places, for example, some seals dig caves to live while some never leave the ice. Did you know, many millions of years ago, seals used to live on land. These days, we rarely see any seals on land as they have adapted to live in the water and on ice.
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"Seals can dive down to depths of hundreds of meters. During the first few minutes, they swim actively downwards, after which they go into a kind of gliding flight while they sink even deeper. Their body is totally adapted to long and deep dives. Their blood can absorb much more oxygen than human blood. Furthermore, they can lower their heart rate tremendously during the dive, from 40 to less than 1 beat per minute. This means they don’t need to breathe as often. When they ascend from deep depths, they can pump out the inhaled air from the air sacs, preventing deadly nitrogen bubbles from entering the bloodstream. Once above water, the heart beat of a seal increases to 120 beats per minute in order to provide enough oxygen for the organs." According to Ecomare Natuurmuseam and Zeehondenopvang Texel
Recently, the seal's population has decreased due to global warming. This is because ice from the glaciers are slowly melting as we continue to emit green house gasses into the atmosphere.
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Most species of seal eat krill, small fish or squid and with the loss of ice, those species will also become extinct. Seals have importance as a predator and a prey as well. Many species of sea creatures such as killer whales or sharks rely on this source if food. The food chain is especially delicate as if one species falls extinct then many will follow.
When sea ice does not form, there is a low chance of seal pups to survive. This is because mother seals made to abandon their pups in the water as they can not feed a pup and herself when the krill species is diminishing. (Krill relies on sea ice as a food source) When there is not enough fish as well, the mother can not make milk for the pup to drink. Also, when the ice is fragile, seal pups often die before their bodies are able to survive open water. The lack of accurate population data means that the effects of natural events and human-caused activities on the species are difficult to determine. There is concern however about the effects that climate change in the Arctic may have on the species. Spotted seals spend much of their time and bear their pups on the ice front, at the southern edge of the sea ice. In the case of global warming, this may cause a retreat of the ice edge and front, thus changing seal distribution relative to the distribution of prey, particularly if the seals are forced to move north and the good feeding areas stay where they are.