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The Baikal seal, Lake Baikal seal, or Nerpa (Pusa sibirica, obsolete: Phoca sibirica), is a species of earless seal endemic to Lake Baikal in Siberia. Like the Caspian seal, they are related to the Arctic ringed seal. The Baikal Seal is the smallest of the true seals and is the only exclusively freshwater pinniped species.[2] It remains a scientific mystery how the seals originally came to Lake Baikal, hundreds of kilometers from any ocean. Some scientists speculate the seals arrived at Lake Baikal when a sea-passage linked the lake with the Arctic Ocean (see also West Siberian Glacial Lake and West Siberian Plain). The total population is estimated to be over 60000 animals, and hunting of the seals, once widespread, is now restricted. Many hunters drown every year hunting the Baikal seal