It’s true!
Iliamna Lake is home to one of two known freshwater seal colonies in the world. The only other documented seals living in freshwater are in Lake Baikal, Russia.
**Update: Since posting I’ve found reference to two other unique seals living in freshwater - Ladoga Seal and the Saimaa Ringed Seal.
The photo above was taken on March 9th as I lay on the ice of Iliamna Lake with several friends, excited to finally be seeing with our own eyes these mysterious seals. To the locals living on the shores of Iliama Lake this photo will come as no surprise, the seals have been companions for generations.
Despite their long history of inhabiting Iliamna Lake, very little is known about these rare freshwater seals. Many people I’ve spoken with have heard of them but too many questions have gone unanswered. After discussing it for a couple years, several friends and I made an expedition to Iliamna Lake to document that the freshwater seals do in fact spend their winters there. It has been common knowledge that the seals live in the lake during the summer months, but many we spoke with assumed that as winter approached the seals swam back down the Kvichak River that drains Iliamna Lake into Bristol Bay.
Stay tuned for more photos and information about the freshwater seals of Iliamna Lake. This is just the beginning of our efforts to document these seals and their lives in the often icy waters of Iliamna Lake.
A few facts about Iliamna Lake: 1,000 sq mi (2,590 sq km), 75 mi (121 km) long and up to 22 mi (35 km) wide, SWAlaska, at the base of the Alaska Peninsula. It is fed by many lakes and streams; the Kvichak River drains it SW into Bristol Bay. The lake is an integral part of the largest remaining wild sockeye salmon runs in the world, it is also downstream from the site of the proposed pebble mine, which if developed would include the largest dam in the world to hold back the toxic waste created in the hard rock mining process.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Dan Dunaway // Mar 16, 2008 at 9:25 am
For years I have hoped to see these seals. In the 70’s I worked for FRI and we were supposed to shoot one (I think - been a long time) for genetic samples if we ever came across one. We never saw one in the month I worked there. I’ve been around the lake some ever since but never spotted the seals. Cool - good work. Would be nice to get some genetic info as the Kvichak is so short it wouldn’t be much for seals to travel between the lake and Bristol Bay.
2 Lindsey Bloom // Mar 17, 2008 at 7:40 am
Thanks for sharing your pics and encounter story. I look forward to more info on the seals and can’t wait to find out more about them. Keep the info coming!
3 Scott Dickerson // Mar 17, 2008 at 12:31 pm
@ Dan - Interesting comment, some good science perspective from the past - “Shoot one if you see it” We were fortunate to find this group of about 15 seals with the help of the locals on our third day on the lake.
4 Scott Dickerson // Mar 17, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I think these frewshwater seals will inevitably become a contentious subjects due to their close proximity to the proposed mining developments. There are real concerns for them and the local people who count on them as part of their subsistence lifestyle.
Like so many other things, anything that is done concerning the seals will have to be a compromise. In the end it seems most important that we remember the fact that without clean water and abundent salmon runs these seals will not be able to survive in Iliamna Lake.
5 Scott Dickerson // Mar 17, 2008 at 12:48 pm
@ Lindsey - Hi! nice to hear from you. I’m hoping to find support to put more efforts into photographing the freshwater seals this year. And we are also working on some genetic sampling with NMFS. It will be very interesting to find if the seals living in Iliamna Lake are actually genetically different from those in Bristol Bay.
I’ll keep posting updates here.
6 Scott Dickerson // Mar 17, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Since posting I’ve found reference to two other unique colonies of freshwater seals - Ladoga Seal and the Saimaa Ringed Seals.
7 Ben Turpin // Apr 23, 2008 at 12:23 pm
In addition, a small (estimated to be less than 300 animals) and very rare population of land-locked freshwater seals inhabits Lac des Loups Marins, Northern Quebec.
8 Robert Bruso // Jun 28, 2008 at 3:40 pm
This will be my 38th summer in Pedro Bay on Lake Iliamna and have seen the seals frequently. As they look fat and healthy I wonder what they eat before and after the salmon run.
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