California Sea Lions Vs. Harbor Seals

     The California Sea Lion and Harbor Seal can both be found inhabiting La Jolla's Ecological Reserve and Children's Pool of La Jolla. They are always a fun sight from our Sea Cave Kayak Tours, where they swim, play, and feed right near our kayaks. These local marine creatures are part of the Pinniped family, which means "fin-footed" or "feather-footed"...The Walrus is also a Pinniped, but they are found further north on the coasts of Alaska, Russia, Canada, and Greenland.
     It can be difficult to distinguish between the Sea Lion and Harbor Seal. As you can see in the photographs below, they appear to be very similar. One might easily mistake a sea lion for a seal from our Plunge Bike Tour, which bikes along the coast to observe the local marine life and catch the scenic views.
Both seals and sea lions are really cute, basking in the sunshine, but there are a few distinct physical differences to notice:

Sea Lion (top) Harbor Seal (Bottom)

Sea lions have small ear flaps, while seals have ear holes. 

Sea lions have longer and large foreflippers, which are hairless. 
Seals have short, hairy foreflippers with claws. 

Sea lions have long smooth whiskers, while seals have crimped or beaded whiskers.

Some of their unique features allow them to move around differently:

Sea lions rotate their hindflippers beneath them to help them walk on land.
Seals move on land by wiggling their bellies and keeping their hindflippers straight.

Sea lions swim underwater using foreflippers like the wings of a bird.
Seals swim by steering with their foreflippers and powering with their hindflippers.


All of this cool information and much more can be learned from any of Hike Bike Kayak's kayaking tours or bike tours.