JUNE JULY JULY JULY 



23 3 II 16 



MIDPOINTS OF TAGGING DATES 



Figure 11. — Percentage recovery of male seals ^ 2 

 years old tagged on accessible hauling grounds, St. 

 Paul Island, June and July 1968-69. 



dates (10-11 July 1968 and 1-5 July 1969). 

 Recoveries during a standard recovery interval 

 (11 July to 1 August) were also significantly 

 different (P<0.01) . Of the seals tagged 10-11 

 July 1968 and 1-5 July 1969, 43 and 60 per- 

 cent, respectively, were recovered during the 

 21 days after tagging. Possible causes for the 

 difference are differences in seasonal behavior 

 or in age compositions of seals tagged during 

 the two periods. Four-year-olds were more 

 abundant among recoveries of seals tagged 1-5 

 July 1969 than 10-11 July 1968 (table 29) . Pos- 



Table 29. --Percentage age composition of male seals >Z years 

 old tagged on St. Paul Island, June and July, 1968 

 and 1969 



Age 



sibly 4-year-olds spend more time on land than 

 3-year-olds. 



Male seals tagged in 1969 and released after 

 capture. — Of 38 male seals ^ 2 years old (prin- 

 cipally 3- and 4-year-olds) tagged with white- 

 coated tags from 30 June to 17 July 1969, 28 

 were recaptured once and 8 were recaptured 

 twice. Eleven tagged seals were killed acci- 

 dentally when first recaptured; 2 were killed 

 in subsequent recaptures. Eight (47 percent) 

 of seventeen seals recaptured previously and 

 not killed were recaptured again. One seal 

 tagged on Zapadni was recaptured there 21 

 days after tagging and again on Zapadni 4 

 days later. One seal tagged on Polovina was 

 recaptured on Northeast Point 4 days after 

 tagging and again on Zapadni 4 days later. 

 A seal tagged on Reef was recaptured there 

 6 days after tagging and again on Zapadni 23 

 days later. All of the other seals were recap- 

 tured on or close to the hauling ground where 

 they were tagged. The average time to the 

 first recapture was 9.4 days and to the second 

 an additional 4.2 days (table 30). 



Ten tagged seals were never recaptured. The 

 date of tagging, however, did not influence 

 availability of these seals for recapture. More 

 seals tagged from 30 June to 3 July were taken 

 on the hauling ground of tagging (87 percent) 

 than were seals tagged from 14 to 17 July (46 

 percent) , but the differences were not signifi- 

 cant (P = 0.04). Some of the seals tagged in 

 1969 may be recaptured in 1970. 



The interval between tagging and the first 

 recapture ranged from 3 to 31 days (average 

 12.7). The interval between recapture for 

 nine seals caught twice was 3 to 13 days (aver- 

 age 7.2). 



Seals from both tagging periods (30 June to 

 3 July and 14-17 July) strayed, but differences 

 between tagging periods in the numbers that 

 strayed away from the hauling ground where 

 they were tagged were not significant (P = 

 0.13). 



Telemetry. — In 1969 we placed radio trans- 

 mitters on 11 male seals ^ 2 years old on St. 

 Paul Island and recovered all but four (table 

 31). Each seal was also double-tagged on the 

 front flippers with blue-coated (fuse-bond 



28 



