Harbor Seal
Phoca vitulina
Harbor seals can sleep underwater, rising to the surface to breathe automatically every few minutes without ever waking up.
- Scientific name
- Phoca vitulina
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Chordata › Mammalia › Carnivora › Phocidae › Phoca
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- aquatic
- Habitat
- Coastal waters, sandy beaches, rocky shores, estuaries, and mudflats.
- Diet
- A carnivorous diet consisting of fish (herring, cod, salmon), squid, octopuses, and crustaceans.
- Range
- North Atlantic Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, Baltic Sea, North Sea
- Size
- 1.5 to 1.9 meters (5 to 6 feet) long; 50 to 170 kg (110 to 370 lbs)
- Lifespan
- 20 to 30 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Entanglement in fishing gear, chemical pollution, vessel strikes, and human disturbance during critical breeding and molting seasons.
- Safe to approach?
- Harbor seals are defensive if cornered or approached too closely, especially on land where they haul out to rest or nurse. Maintain a safe distance of at least 150 feet (50 meters). Never get between a mother and her pup. If bitten, seek immediate medical attention, as seal bites carry unique marine bacteria requiring specialized antibiotics.
The harbor (or harbour ) seal ( Phoca vitulina ), also known as the common seal , is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared seals, and true seals), they are found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Baltic and North Seas.
Photo: David Badke, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist
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