Bearded Seals are protected by various laws in their range countries. Subsistence hunting by indigenous people of the Arctic is generally for personal use and not regulated unless populations are depleted (e.g., Cleator 1996, Angliss and Outlaw 2005).

Vessel-based commercial hunting in the former Soviet Union ended in 1975; after that time the harvest has taken place at much lower levels (similar to a subsistence harvest). Prior to the end of commercial harvesting, the Soviet Union used a system of quotas to regulate the take of Bearded Seals in an attempt to manage the population (Kelly 1988). Licensed (sport) hunters can shoot bearded seals in Svalbard, outside protected areas and not during the breeding season (Kovacs et al. 2004).