Saippa : saimaannorppa = The Saimaa ringed seal

Sari Kanala 2015
English text: Erja Mononen
gouaches by Daga Ulv
photographs by Juha Taskinen


As the title reveals, the main character is Saippa, the Saimaa ringed seal. The book tells the how Saippa lives his/her first year at Saimaa.

The book is illustrated with gouaches as well as photographs and the texts are both in Finnish and in English.

Mama seal giving birth

The story starts when Mama Saimaa ringed seal gives birth to her cub in a pile of snow.  Obviously there are no photos of that, but the illustration is charming.

At the end of the book is more information about the other seals living in Finland. And the facts are checked by the ringed seal scientists.

Seals on Saimaa.

Maybe I am a bit  fixated with the ringed seals.  Earlier this year I blogged about another seal. But it is easy. They are so cute and adorable. It seams that the less attractive endangered species do not get such attention. It is a cruel world.

The winter of ringed seal

Pekka Hänninen 2005
illustrated by Laura Tuominen

It is the seals first winter alone. All summer its mother had taken care of him and taughtaught it that best place to catch fish is by the shoal. She also told that the seal pup to take care of the breathing holes in the ice and never to swim far away from them.

In the winter the seal pup is afraid in his cave. The ice makes strange noises and when he goes fishing, he does not catch anything. Then he meets another seal. The female pup does not want anything to do with him, winter is hard enough alone. The seal pup thinks she is Pretty and names her so.

Soon the seal pup gets used to the darkness. He prowls fishes behind a large stone and investigates the neighborhood. He even catches a large pike. One day he sees a school of perches and follows them. Pretty has also seen them and together they follow the fish. They get lost and do not see any breathing holes. The seal pup sees an image of his father, which had been caught in the fishing net and died. The seal pup does not give up and realizes there a lot of light. That means that ice has become thinned. He accelerates and smashes a hole in the ice. They are saved.

At the end of the book several ringed seals are introduced: Saimaa, Ladoga and the Baltic sea has their own ringed seals and all of them are endangered. The Saimaa ringed sea is very endangered mainly because of fishing nets and snowless winters. Volunteers have been making banks of snow, so the seals could have nesting places.