the number, by area, of seals tagged at age 1 

 and older in 1969. 



Raymond E. Anas 



Recoveries of Marked Seals 



This section includes the number of marked 

 animals recovered in 1969, an analysis of tag 

 loss, and the value of tags versus other marks. 



Marked seals. — Male seals marked on the 

 Pribilof Islands in previous years and recov- 

 ered there in 1969 included 2,458 that had been 

 single tagged or marked as pups (table A-21) 

 and 1,093 that had been double tagged at age 

 1 or older (table A-22) . Information is in- 

 complete for 165 additional males that had 

 been tagged at age 1 or older; the ages of 56 

 animals could not be determined because the 

 heads or flippers were separated from the 

 carcasses during the skinning process and 109 

 seals had lost both tags. 



Thirty-seven seals tagged as pups by Soviet 

 biologists were killed on the Pribilof Islands 

 in 1969 (table A-23). 



Alton Y. Roppel 



Tag loss. — All seals that are tagged are 

 given an additional mark or tag to decrease 

 loss of their identity. When we recover double- 

 marked animals in the kill, we record the loss 

 of tags and later calculate the rate of tag loss 

 (tables 6 and 7). Although the rate for most 

 tag series has been greater than 0.3, those for 

 the last four series (IT, 2T, 1U, and 2U) ap- 

 plied to males older than pups have been rel- 

 atively low (<0.1, <0.1, <0.1, and 0.14, re- 

 spectively) (table 7). 



The rate of tag loss varies for several 

 reasons, the most obvious of which have been 

 quality and application of tags, and differences 

 in the ages of animals tagged. 



Ancel M. Johnson 



Table 6. 



--Summary of tag loss for male seals tagged as pups, tag series Q through T, Pribilof Islands, 



Alaska 



Year and 

 tag series 



Age at 

 recovery 



St. Paul Island 



Tagged 

 seals 

 (a) 



Lost-tag 

 seals 

 (b) 



Total 

 (a)+(b) 



Ratio 

 (b)/[(a) + (b)] 



St. George Island 



Tagged 

 seals 

 (a) 



Lost-tag 



seals 



(b) 



Total 

 (a)+(b) 



Ratio 



(b)/[(a) + (b)] 



1964 

 Q 

 Q 

 Q 

 Q 



Total 



1965 



rU 



R 

 R 



Total 



1966 

 S 

 S 



Total 



1967 



T 



76 



19 



95 



-Number- 



10 

 338 

 160 



26 



21 



89 



36 



1 



0. 20 



13 



0. 31 



1_/ No R-series tags were applied to seals on St. George Island. 



13 



