A rounded head and short front flippers distinguish this seal. It has ears, but no external ear flaps.
It has a short snout and a spotted coat, with dark spots on a pale background or pale rings on a dark background.
Harbor seals also produce sounds on land. A young male at a German zoo produced sounds with its mouth closed and nostrils open, and could shorten or prolong the same sound type.
The male was one and a half years old when it participated at Zoo Cleves. Researchers used arm gestures and fish rewards to train short and long sounds. Training and experiments ran from September 2022 to January 2023.
With practice, its sound durations changed substantially. Before the experiment they averaged about 0.65 seconds. In the final short and long sessions, they averaged about 0.16 and 5.34 seconds respectively. Published in 2025, this single-animal study showed that a captive seal could learn fine control over the timing of its sounds.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Entanglement in fishing gear can cause injuries and interfere with swimming and feeding.
In Alaska’s glacial fjords, approaching vessels can flush seals and pups from ice floes into the water. Pups may spend more time in cold water and face increased risk of separation from their mothers. NOAA’s voluntary guidelines, introduced in 2015, recommend that vessels strive to remain 500 yards, about 460 metres, from seals when safe navigation allows, minimize wake and avoid abrupt changes in course or engine pitch. These measures address seals using glacial ice in Alaska.