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Young Fur Seal amongst large boulders. Fur Seals are smaller than the Sea Lions and tend to be found on rocky rather than sandy shorelines where their smaller size makes climbing up on the shore easier than for the Sea Lions.

Fur Seals are not so widespread in the Galapagos Islands as the Sea Lions either, they feed on squid rather than fish and so need deeper water in order to find their prey and so tend to be found around the outer shores rather than in the middle shallower regions , they will dive up to 100m to reach their food.

Like many other fur seals in other regions of the world, the Galapagos Fur Seal is currently in a population upswing, this represents a recovery still from the 19th century when they were hunted to the brink of extinction by sealers who killed them for their fur. Like Sea Lions, they are at risk of physical injury from litter and the flotsam from fishing boats, but the greatest potential danger is from over fishing of their food supply, currently a potential rather than an actual threat.

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