Haliaeetus pelagicus is vulnerable to coastal development in its restricted breeding and wintering ranges. Developments such as the hydrological scheme at Lake Utonai on Hokkaido, Japan, is threatening the wintering population there.
Haliaeetus pelagicus breeds only in eastern Russia, along the coast of the Bering Sea and Okhotsk Sea, including Sakhalin Island, where it nests in tall trees along the lower reaches of rivers and on rocky coasts. It winters south to Japan, South Korea and North Korea, and has occurred as a vagrant in China and Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands, U.S.A.
The breeding population of Haliaeetus pelagicus was estimated in 1986 to be 2,200 pairs and a survey in winter 1985/1986 indicated 4000 birds on the Kamchatka peninsula (the main and almost only Russian wintering area) and just over 2,000 in Japan (mainly concentrated on the Shiretoko peninsula, 1987), giving a total population estimate of 6,000--7,000.
Haliaeetus pelagicus is considered as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN Red List. CITES lists the species as "Appendix 2".