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Harbour Seals of the West Coast |
The harbour seals are brown, tan, or gray, with distinctive V-shaped nostrils. An adult can attain a length of 6.1 ft and a mass of 290 lb. Females outlive males (30-35 years versus 20-25 years). The harbour seal sticks to familiar resting spots, generally rocky areas where land predators can't reach them. The harbour seal may spend several days at sea and travel up to 50 kilometres in search of feeding grounds. Resting sites may be both rugged, rocky coasts, and sandy beaches. The seals frequently choose to congregate in harbours, lending the animals their name. The harbour seal is known to prey primarily upon fish such as anchovy, sea bass, herring, mackerel, cod, and occasionally upon shrimp, crabs and squid. They are able to dive for up to ten minutes, reaching depths of approx 1500 feet or more, but average dives may be three minutes long at depths of about approx 66 feet. There are a few cases of harbour seals attacking, killing and eating several kinds of seabirds. Females are thought to give birth once per year, with a gestation period of eleven months. Birthing of pups occurs annually on shore during the summer months. The pups are born singly and well developed, capable of swimming and diving within hours. Harbour seals must spend a great deal of time on shore when shedding off their fur (called moulting) which the seals undergo shortly after breeding. This onshore time is important to the life cycle and can be disturbed where there is human interference or distraction. |