Shelby The Harbor Seal

The harbor seal is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern hemisphere. They are found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as those of the Baltic and North Seas, making them the most wide-ranging of the pinnipeds.

Harbor seals are brown, tan, or gray, with distinctive V-shaped nostrils. An adult can attain a length of 1.85 meters and a mass of 132 kilograms. Females outlive males. Harbor seals stick to familiar resting spots, generally rocky areas where land predators can’t reach them, near a steady supply of fish to eat.

Shelby a female harbor seal is one of the original pinnipeds of the Aquarium of the Pacific. On grand opening day back in 1998, she was a precocious 3 year old seal peering out at all the visitors through the underwater tunnel.  During the Aquarium’s Grand Opening year you could always find Shelby at the window interacting with guests.

She was so full of energy and curiosity that the original marine mammal staff decided that they needed to train her to do a lot of high energy behaviors to keep her from getting bored.