Darlene Cross, age 10, of Grand Falls, Newfoundland, Canada, for her question:

Are harbor seals different from fur seals?

Yes, they are. They belong to different families of the seal clan. The harbor seal is called a hair seal, because his coat is harsh and hairy. Fur seals, naturally, have soft thick coats of silky fur. They are a dark, even color and most of them prefer to live in cold, polar seas. Harbor seals enjoy life in either cool or warmish seas north of the Equator. Their hairy coats are dotted with blotches of color. Their color schemes range from yellow grey with dark broom dots to black with white dots. Their pups have woolly white coats and bleat like lambs. The father is about five feet long and weighs 100 pounds or more. The mother is smaller.

Harbor seals stay close to land and like to loaf on reefs, islands and beaches. Often a small group of several families live in a bay or a sheltered harbor. And sometimes they even swim far inland up a river.