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Diet
The Saimaa ringed seal does not have an incredibly varied diet. They are generalist feeders and eat exclusively fish. The fish consumed consist primarily small schooling fish averaging 8.6 cm  in length and up to 21 cm in length, while it has be shown that the pups eat slightly smaller fish than the average. The majority of their diet consists of vendace, smelt, perch and roach. The pups diet varies markedly from the adults in that their diet consists primarily of perch and roach found in the shallow water where they spend most of their time in their earlier months while the adults consume more vendace and smelt.

It was believed for a long time that the Saimaa ringed seal was competing with the commercial and recreational fishing industries and there were bounties paid on them until the 1940’s. However it has recently been proven that the Saimaa ringed seal has minimal to no effect on the fishing industry. They do not prey on the local endangered salmon species(Salmo salar m. Sebago, S. trutta m. lacustris, and Salvelinus alpines) and although they do prey on the valuable vendace population, the proportion of the vendace population to the amount consumed by the seals indicates that they do not compete with the local fishing industries.