Nerpa

Easily the most beloved Baikal resident is the nerpa, or Baikal seal. Nerpa are unique among the world’s seals by being the only ones to live exclusively in fresh rather than salt water. How exactly the nerpa got in Baikal, a thousand miles from the closest ocean, is itself something of a mystery. It is believed that they may have swam up the Lena river in prehistoric times, when the Lena, rather than the Angara, drained Baikal.

But now Baikal’s most famous resident may be threatened. According to Baikal Watch, legal hunting of the nerpa far exceeds levels considered sustainable by most population biologists – and those figures do not include the uncounted number of poached nerpa.

Yet some environmentalists are not convinced that the nerpa’s situation is dire. And much of the argument is moot, because no one really knows exactly how many nerpa are left. No nerpa census has been done since 1992, and some even doubt the accuracy of the earlier censuses.