Phoca vitulina Linnaeus, 1758 . Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1:38.

TYPE LOCALITY: "in mari Europaeo" restricted by Thomas (1911a) to "Mari Bothnico et Baltico", however, presently it does not occur in the Gulf of Bothnia (Bobrinski et al., 1944) .

DISTRIBUTION: Kurile Isis and Kamchatka (Russia); south to Kiangsu (China); Alaska to Mexico; Greenland and E Canada to NE USA; Iceland; Britain and Europe; Seal Lakes, Ungava Peninsula (Canada); Iliamna Lake, Alaska (USA).

STATUS: IUCN - Vulnerable as P. v. stejnegeri .

SYNONYMS: antarcticus Peale, 1848; californica Gray, 1866; canina Pallas, 1811; concolor DeKay, 1842; geronimensis Allen, 1902; insularis Belkin, 1964; kurilensis McLaren, 1966; linnaei Lesson, 1828; littorea Thienemann, 1824; mellonae Doutt, 1942; pealii Gill, 1866; pribilofensis Allen, 1902; richardii Gray, 1873; scopulicola Thienemann, 1824; thienemannii Lesson, 1828; variegata Nilsson, 1820 .

COMMENTS: The position of stejnegeri Allen, 1902, remains uncertain; Scheffer (1958) placed in largha Pallas, 1811; J. E. King (1983) placed in vitulina Linnaeus, 1758; and Shaughnessy and Fay (1977) suggested incertae sedis.