APPENDIX 



NOTES ON DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF HARBOR SEALS 

 PHOCA VITULINA IN THE GULF OF ASALKA AND 

 ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AREA 



In conjunction with the sea lion surveys an 

 effort was made to count harbor seals 

 (Phoca vitulinaj whenever they were found. 



Favorite hauling grounds of the harbor 

 seals are the long sandy beaches and sand- 

 spits, and the islands that are often near the 

 mouths of streams. Frequently harbor seals 

 move only high enough on a sandbar to be out 

 of reach of the surf. This, combined with an 

 extreme wariness to strange sounds such as 

 the noise of an airplane, makes it more 





difficult to photograph the seals than sea 

 lions. At times some of the seals on larger 

 hauling grounds managed to move out into 

 the water even before the plane flew over 

 them, and when in the water the relatively 

 small seal heads were difficult to spot on a 

 photograph. An example of this movement is 

 shown in a photograph (appendix fig. 1) taken 

 on Trinity Islands on July 24, 1956. A few 

 seals already in the water can barely be 

 spotted. As a rule few seals remained on 

 land during a second flight over a hauling 



«> V 



"^^ * A?^^* 



Appendix figure 1.- -One hundred and twenty-three harbor seals on Trinity Islands, July 24, 1956, moving toward 



water upon arrival of airplane. 



18 



