Spotted “Sausages” and Beachmaster Bullies: California’s Pacific Harbor Seals and Northern Elephant Seals

Harbor and elephant seals belong to a group of carnivorous mammals called pinnipeds, of which there are 35 species around the world. These are divided into three groups: 18 “true” or “earless” seals, 16 eared seals, and the walrus. Sea lions are the eared branch of the group; walruses, which have tusks, have their own family and genus. (The fur seals, which are closely related to sea lions, will be covered in a future column on the eared seals.)

Harbor seals and elephant seals are “true” seals or phocids. They can be identified by ear holes that have no external ear flaps, relatively small front flippers, and locomotion on land, which is similar to the undulations of a caterpillar. In the water, seals flap their rear flippers side to side, like a fish tail. Their cousins the sea lions use powerful front flippers to propel themselves through the water. On land sea lions walk and climb with agility using all four flippers.

The harbor seal is the most widely distributed pinniped in the world, inhabiting temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The worldwide population is estimated to be 350,000 to 500,000 individuals; about 45,000 of those living in California.

The discontinuation of commercial sealing and protections enacted in the early 1970s by the United Kingdom and the United States have stabilized the general harbor seal population. There are pockets of concern where these seals are still persecuted in the belief that they compete with commercial fishers for resources. Seal pup fatalities in fishing nets is another area of concern. Northern elephant seals have made a remarkable recovery from overhunting for their blubber to make oil. Of the hundreds of thousands that once roamed the Pacific, they were thought to be extinct in 1884. But a colony of eight was discovered in 1892 on Guadalupe Island, located off Mexico’s Baja California. Today, approximately 200,000 northern elephant seals come ashore annually across their range.

FAMILY

Phocedai

GENUS

Phoca (Latin, phoca, meaning “seal”)