Vacation Day 5 continued - Harbor and Gray Seals

We saw several of these butterballs while we were going out to Petit Manan Island. They seemed pretty curious.

Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina)
Classified as true seals (lacking both external ears and the ability to rotate their hind flippers forward). When moving on land, they must flop along on their belly.

Harbor seals do not migrate like some other seals. They are able to dive to almost 1,500 feet and stay submerged for more than 20 minutes.

On land they typically lay in a “banana like” posture with their head and tail both lifted.





Gray Seal (Halichoerus grypus)

Gray Seals are the largest seal on the east coast. Males have an elongated “Roman nose”. They are more agile on land than other true seals.