280 Alaskan Science Conference 



land, the fur animals and the trapper. This must be accom- 

 plished if the fur crop is to be sustained and increased in the 

 face of increasing trapping pressure. Trappers will welcome 

 relief from cutthroat competition for trapping grounds and an 

 opportunity to manage a fur crop on a trap line that is theirs 

 to use so long as they take care of it. 



Summary 



Fish and wildlife resources of Alaska are administered by the 

 Fish and Wildlife Service with the Alaska Game Commission 

 as the regulatory and policy-making body. 



Basic soil and climatic limitations result in low densities of 

 game and fish per unit of area. Except in the case of anadro- 

 raous fish, heavy crops of game and fish are not produced but 

 there is a huge acreage comprising most of Alaska which is more 

 suitable for game and fur production than for any other 

 purpose. 



Animal behavior patterns pose serious problems in wildlife 

 management. For example the migrations of the caribou have 

 to date proved unpredictable. Studies have shown the total 

 population and the licensed kill but more information is needed 

 on factors causing migration. The present discontinuous dis- 

 tribution of the sea otter may be caused by remnant relatively 

 stationary pods or by migration from a nucleus in the Aleutians. 

 Restorative measures will be quite different if the otter prove 

 sedentary instead of migratory. A third example of animal 

 behavior is the migration pattern of waterfowl. Banding 

 studies show the fall migration of the black brant from the 

 Yukon Delta, out along the Alaska Peninsula thence straight 

 across the Gulf of Alaska presumedly to the British Columbia 

 coast thence south to the Pacific states. Migration of the cack- 

 ling goose is similar to that of the brant. White-fronted geese, on 

 the other hand, tend to cross to the Central Flyway and pintail 

 ducks nesting in Alaska spread out quite widely in the south- 

 ward migration. These variations in migration pose serious 

 problems in regulation and protection. 



