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The thala-siren is the common name given to a family of large pinipeds. The average thala-siren has two pairs of flippers, with the anterior pair significantly larger than the rear pair. This stronger pair is used as the main swimming locomotors, while the rear pair provides steering underwater. Despite their large size, these animals are surprisingly fast and agile when swimming, and can hold their breath for up to twenty minutes at a time. This allows them to feed along the bottom, sucking up mollusks with their proboscis and crushing the shells with their strong molars. Their powerful front flippers also allow them to haul out and climb quite far from the sea's edge on order to bask in the sun.

While the fossil records shows that Thala-Sirens were brought to many systems and were relatively common throughout the galaxy, they are considered endangered by most of the galaxy's ecologists. Their low populations due in part to habitat loss and their general docility making them easy targets for hunters and animal predators alike. As such, they are more likely to be encountered in captivity nowadays than in the wild, except perhaps on some isolated, backwater planets that sport few native sentient species.

Thala-sirens are devoted parents. The females, sometimes called sea-sows, produce a rich, green hued milk from an udder located between the rear pair of flippers. This milk is approximately thirty percent fat, compared to between three and five percent for most mammalian species, and can be consumed safely by humans and mammals without any form of treatment. This has made their milk a valuable food source for those communities that have managed to domesticate and keep a few thala-sirens. Proteins in the milk also seem to accelerate the healing process, and research is under way to determine the reason. The research is hampered though by the relative scarcity of the creatures, and so related medical breakthroughs may be some way off.