Algae grew most frequently on the throat, nape, and back. Barnacles were most frequently attached to guard hairs on the ear pinna, nape, and back. The number of barnacles found on individual seals ranged from 1 to 42; size of capitulum ranged from 1 to 15 mm.

Algae identified as Ectocarpus spp. were taken from seals collected in 1964 in the same area and at the same time of year as in 1965. The algae collected in 1965 were not identified.

Lepas pectinata pacifica was identified on 85 seals and L. anatifera on 9. Both species were growing on eight seals. Legas spp. (?) were found on four seals. Cypris stages of L. p. pacifica were present on 15 seals.*

Food

Fur seals feed on a variety of fishes and cephalopods. Reports on the food and feeding of fur seals in the eastern North Pacific and

Bering Sea were given by: Lucas (1899); Scheffer (1950); Taylor, Fujinaga, and Wilke (1955); North Pacific Fur Seal Commission Report on Investigations from 1958 to 1961 (1964); Fiscus, Baines, and Wilke (1964); Fiscus, Baines, and Kajimura (1965); and Fiscus and Kajimura (1965).

In 1965, 416 stomachs taken from seals collected in waters off Washington (147) and California (269) were examined: 324 or 78 percent (67 percent off Washington and 84 percent off California) contained food. Of these, however, 136 contained only trace amounts of food (Washington 56, California 80).

Fish and cephalopods found in the stomachs of fur seals were identified by comparison with preserved whole specimens and skeletons, and by using identification keys prepared by Andriashev (1937, 1954); Berry (1912, 1914); Clemens and Wilby (1961); Clothier (1950); Fraser-Brunner (1949); Hitz (1965); Phillips (1957, 1964); Roedel (1953); Sasaki (1929); Schultz (1936); and Wilimovsky (1958). When

4 Identification of 39 barnacle samples was verified by Dora P. Henry, Oceanography Department, University of Washington.

Trace amount = a stomach containing less than 5 cc. of food.

"N. J. Wilimovsky. 1958. Provisional keys to the fishes of Alaska. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory, Juneau, Alaska. 113 p. [Processed manuscript.]

ever possible, vertebral counts were made to aid in identification of unknown fish found in fur seal stomachs. Lengths and weights of whole fish and squids were measured for use in studies of size of food species taken and stomach capacity of fur seals.

New species of fish or squid are added to the list of fur seal food almost every year. In 1965, Moroteuthis robusta is reported for the first time as fur seal food. The major food species usually remain the same in a given area, but their rank may change from year to year and from season to season. Observations at sea and examination of stomach contents during the past 8 years (1958-65) show that fur seals feed primarily between dusk and dawn. Food species occurring in fur seal stomachs are shown in figures A-1 to A-8. The detailed results of stomach contents are shown in tables 6 and 7. Figure 4 shows the percentage volume and percentage occurrence of food items that contributed more than 2 percent of the total food volume in each of the

The following fishes and cephalopods were found in fur seal stomachs examined in 1965. The common and scientific names of fish are from the list (where applicable) published by the American Fisheries Society (1960). Cephalopod names are those used by Berry (1912, 1914) and Sasaki (1929).

Lampetra tridentata. Pacific lampreys were found in the stomachs of five seals collected off Washington in 1965 (fig. A-1); this species was also in the stomachs of three seals collected off Grays Harbor, Wash., in 1961.’

Clupeidae. Vertebral fragments of fish belonging to this family were in the stomachs of two fur seals collected off California (fig. A-2). Pacific herring (Clupea harengus pallasi) were identified in the stomachs of four seals taken off California and in the stomachs of five taken off Washington (fig. A-3). Pacific herring is not an important fur seal food off the California and Washington coasts (North Pacific Fur Seal Commission, 1964; Fiscus and Kajimura, 1965).

Engraulis mordax. Northern anchovy ranked third in total food volume and fifth in frequency off California; off Washington it was first in

'Clifford H. Fiscus, Karl Niggol, and Ford Wilke. 1961. Pelagic fur seal investigations, California to British Columbia, 1961. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory, Seattle, Wash. [Processed, 87 p.]

volume and second in frequency. Seals taken off Monterey, Calif., and Grays Harbor, Wash., had fed on anchovy (fig. A-4).

Oncorhynchus spp. Salmon had been eaten by seven seals collected off Grays Harbor and by one taken off Cape Flattery, Wash. (fig. A-5). One stomach contained coho salmon, O. kisutch (1-year ocean growth), and another a chinook salmon, O. tshawytscha (2-year ocean growth). Salmon ranked third in total food volume and fourth in frequency of occurrence; it was not found in the stomachs of seals collected off California.

Thaleichthys pacificus. Eulachon ranked second in volume and third in frequency off Washington. Nine of eleven occurrences were from seals taken off Cape Flattery (fig. A-3).

Myctophidae. A lanternfish was eaten by a fur seal collected in lat. 37° 49' N., long. 124° 11' W. (fig. A-1). Specific identification could not be made because many identifying photophores were missing. Lanternfishes are a minor food item of fur seals collected in the

• The salmon were identified from scales by Raymond E. Anas, Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory, Seattle, Wash,

off California. Sixty-three saury formed 53 percent of the total volume in one stomach. Lengths of four specimens ranged from 21 to 27 cm.

Merluccius productus. Pacific hake occurred in the stomachs of 70 fur seals collected off California and 1 off Washington (fig. A-7). It ranked first in total volume of food (36.7 percent) and second in frequency off California, where it also had been a major food item in past years. At times fur seals were feeding mostly on hake near the Farallon Islands and off Monterey, Calif.; one stomach contained the remains of 31.

Gasterosteus aculeatus. Three spine sticklebacks occurred in the stomachs of seven fur seals collected off Cape Flattery, Wash., and formed 5.8 percent of the total food volume. The one previous Occurrence in fur seal stomachs was in 1959 from the same general area (fig. A-6). Canadian biologists have frequently found this species in the stomachs of seals taken off Vancouver Island (North Pacific Fur Seal Commission, 1964).

Trachurus symmetricus.

Jack mackerel

ranked fifth in volume of food (3.3 percent) off California and were found in 15 stomachs (fig. A-1).

Sebastodes spp. Rockfish ranked fourth in both volume (11.6 percent) and frequency (45) off California. All rockfish from California were juveniles (vertebral length from 47 to 99 mm.). They were most numerous in stomachs from seals collected off Monterey (fig. A-8). One stomach contained 137 small rockfish. Adult rockfish (according to size of vertebrae) occurred once in the stomach of a fur seal collected off Washington.

Anoplopoma fimbria. Sablefish were found in three fur seals collected off California and one off Washington (fig. A-8). They have been

a minor food of seals off California and Washington (North Pacific Fur Seal Commission, 1964; Fiscus and Kajimura, 1965).

Pleuronectidae. Flatfish of this family were in two seals collected off California (fig. A-6). Tremoctopus sp. The remains of a small pelagic octopus was in the stomach of a seal collected off California in lat. 38° 00' N., long. 124° 35' W. (fig. A-6). This octopus was found in the stomachs of 28 seals collected south of Pt. Sur, Calif. in 1961.9

Squids. Squids are one of the main foods of fur seals in the eastern North Pacific. They ranked first in frequency of occurrence off both California (196) and Washington (26); and second in total food volume off California (28.2 percent) and eighth off Washington (0.2 percent). Squid bodies are easily digested by fur seals. Squid beaks and pens, which are not digested and remain in the stomachs long after the bodies are digested, are listed as trace amounts when no body fragments remain.

The following squids from fur seal stomachs were identified: Loligo opalescens, Onychoteuthis banksii, Moroteuthis robusta, Abraliopsis sp., Gonatus fabricii, G. magister, and Gonatopsis borealis (figs. A-1 to A-5).

L. opalescens ranked first in frequency of occurrence and second in total volume of food off California (first in total volume among squids). Most of these squids were found in the stomachs of seals collected off Monterey, the Farallon Islands, and Pt. Reyes, Calif.; it ranked first in frequency of occurrence off Washington.

O. banksii occurred in the stomachs of 49 seals collected off California and ranked second in importance among squids. One stomach contained the remains of eight squids.

9 See footnote 7.

The 10 leading fish and shellfish in the California commercial fishery, listed in the order of pounds landed in 1963 (California Department of Fish and Game, 1965), were: Trachurus symmetricus (jack mackerel); Thunnus alalunga (albacore); Scomber japonicus [diego] (Pacific mackerel); Loligo opalescens (squid); all species of Sebastodes and Sebastolobus (rockfish); Microstomus pacificus (Dover sole); Oncorhynchus kisutch and O. tshawytscha (salmon); Sardinops sagax (sardine); Thunnus thynnus (bluefin tuna); and Engraulis mordax (northern anchovy). Four of the ten commercially important species were found in fur seal stomachs: jack mackerel (3.3 percent of the total food volume in seal stomachs), squid (24.8 percent), rockfish (11.6 percent), and northern anchovy (15.0 percent). Almost no fishing for these species, however, is done in the offshore waters where fur seals feed. Pacific hake, which formed 36.7 percent of the total food volume in seal stomachs, are of little commercial value in California.

The most important commercial fish taken by fur seals collected off Washington were salmon, which occurred in 8 of 147 stomachs. Off Grays Harbor, Wash., fur seals were common in an area where salmon trollers were fishing.

No valid conclusion about the relation of fur seals to commercial fisheries can be drawn from the data available. Considering the volume and frequency of occurrence of commercially important food species in fur seal. stomachs examined in 1965, predation by fur seals on commercial species of fish is not a cause for alarm.

SUMMARY

The United States has conducted pelagic research on fur seals since 1958 in cooperation with Canada, Japan, and the U.S.S.R. under the terms of the Interim Convention on Conservation of the North Pacific Fur Seals. In 1965, observations and collections were made off Washington 2-24 April and off central California 11 April to 23 June, by two chartered purse seine vessels.

Seals were widely scattered off Cape Flattery, Wash., in early April, but a concentration was located off Grays Harbor, Wash., in mid-April. Of 147 seals taken off Washington, only 19 were males. In California waters, seals were most numerous off Monterey and near Cordell Bank west of Pt. Reyes; 10 of 269 collected were males.

To study distribution and migration of fur seals off California, transect lines extending 10 to 80 miles offshore were established at 20-mile intervals between Bodega Head and Pt. Sur. Seals were counted along these lines each month. Seals were most abundant 30 to 40 miles offshore, and decreased gradually out to 80 miles.