They have a distinctive patterning of dark spots surrounded by light grey rings. It is the most abundant and wide-ranging ice seal in the northern hemisphere. The live throughout the Arctic Ocean, into the Bering Sea and Okhotsk Sea as far south as the northern coast of Japan in the Pacific, and throughout the North Atlantic coasts of Greenland and Scandinavia as far south as Newfoundland, and include two freshwater subspecies in northern Europe. Ringed seals are one of the main prey of polar bears. They have long been a part of the diet of indigenous people of the Arctic.