Qasigiaq • Harbour Seal

Mammal - Phoca vitulina

Indigenous Knowledge

qasigiaq 'ranger or fresh-water seal' (Aivilingmiutitut, Spalding 1998, p. 110)

Kasigiak 'Hair seal (Ranger seal). n. Dotter (old Ranger seal). n. Kasigianniagiattujut. They are going ranger seal hunting.' (Nunatsiavummiutut, Nunatsiavut, Labrador Virtual Museum)
 

Western Knowledge

The harbor (or harbourseal (Phoca vitulina), is the most widely distributed species of pinniped and is found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. 

There are three subspecies in Canada; Pacific, Atlantic, and a freshwater subspecies of the Lacs des Loups Marins area of Québec’s Ungava peninsula which are landlocked.


Main Photo Credit: Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) by Gregory Smith, 2011. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harbor_Seal_(Phoca_vitulina).jpg. Licenced with CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en.
Second Photo Credit: Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina vitulina) by Marcel Burkhard, 2005. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seehund.jpg. Licenced with CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0.

Cree

Term Dialect
Nuuhchimiiuaahchikw Northern East Cree, Southern East Cree

English

Term Dialect
Freshwater seal Standard English
Hair Seal Nunatsiavut English
Harbour Seal Standard English
Inland seal Standard English
Ranger seal Nunatsiavut English

Greenlandic

Term Dialect
Qasigiaq Kalaallisut

Inuktut

Term Dialect
Kasigiak Nunatsiavummiutut
Qahigiaq Kangiryuarmiutun, Inuinnaqtun
Qasigiak Nunavimmiutitut - Sanikiluarmiut
Qasigiaq Nunavimmiutitut - Sanikiluarmiut, South Qikiqtaaluk, North Qikiqtaaluk, Aivilingmiutut, Kivallirmiutut

Inupiaq

Term Dialect
Qasigiaq North Alaskan Iñupiaq

Yupik

Term Dialect
Issuriq Central Alaskan Yup'ik

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