The harbor seal’s diet consists mainly of fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. Mother harbor seals sometimes raise their pups in nurseries-groups of mothers and their young-that help protect the seals from predators. They can also dive for up to 2 minutes when they are only 2 to 3 days old and by the end of their first month of life embark on journeys of over 100 miles from their natal area. This behavior does not mean they are injured. Instead, they move by undulating in a caterpillar-like motion. Harbor seal pelvic bones are fused, preventing them from moving their hind flippers under their pelvis to walk on land like sea lions. These seals also haul out in groups to avoid predators and spend less time being watchful for predators than those that haul out alone. They haul out to regulate their body temperature, molt, interact with other seals, give birth, and nurse their pups. Harbor seals haul out (rest) on rocks, reefs, beaches, and drifting glacial ice when they are not traveling and/or foraging at sea. Learn more about our estimates for population size in our stock assessment reports Appearance There is a small but apparently stable population of less than 500 harbor seals in the Pribilof Islands. While most of the 12 harbor seal stocks in Alaska are stable or increasing over the past 8 years, seals in the Aleutian Islands, Glacier Bay, and Icy Strait regions have likely declined. Individual breeding and molting colonies can number in the thousands in some of these areas. Along the West Coast, stocks are stable or unknown and the population in New England appears to be stable. Įach stock has experienced different population trends over the past 30 years. The Bristol Bay stock in Alaska includes a small population of freshwater harbor seals that live in Iliamna lake, located in Southcentral Alaska. In Alaska, there are the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, Bristol Bay, North Kodiak, South Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet/Shelikof Strait, Glacier Bay/Icy Strait, Lynn Canal/Stephens Passage, Sitka/Chatham Strait, Dixon/Cape Decision, and Clarence Strait stocks. Twelve of these stocks are in Alaska, and the other 4 are the California, Oregon-Washington coastal, Washington inland waters, and the western North Atlantic stocks. In the United States, NOAA Fisheries has identified 16 stocks of harbor seals.
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