Generally, males are darker and females lighter. Pups are born white with a yellowish tint. Male grey seals have wrinkled necks, thicker necks and shoulders, and longer, broader, more rounded snouts than females. Male grey seals are much larger than females, weighing 375 to 880 pounds and growing to almost ten feet long. Females weigh between 220 and 572 pounds and reach lengths of up to seven and a half feet.
Seals living in Canadian waters grow the largest.
Grey seals breed from eastern Canada to the Baltic Sea. Canadian breeding areas include the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and coastal Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador. Colonies are also found in coastal Iceland, Great Britain, northern Norway, Denmark, southern Sweden, and Estonia. Young seals wander widely. For instance, Canadian grey seals are sometimes seen as far south as New Jersey.