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True Seals: Phocidae

True Seals And People

Native people have always depended on seals for food, oil, and fur, taking only what they need for their local populations. Commercial sealers, on the other hand, have overhunted some species.

DEEP DIVERS

Northern elephant seals are able to dive to deep ocean depths because of certain bodily adaptations. They reduce oxygen use in the muscles, tissues, and other organs and redirect that oxygen supply to the important organs, the heart and brain. Human divers may suffer decompression sickness, or the "bends," when rising to the water surface because of nitrogen bubbles trapped in the blood. Seals collapse their lungs when diving, ridding the lungs of any air, and therefore avoid the bends.

Additional topics

Animal Life ResourceMammalsTrue Seals: Phocidae - Physical Characteristics, True Seals And People, Conservation Status, Harp Seal (pagophilus Groenlandicus:): Species Accounts - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET, BEHAVIOR AND REPRODUCTION