Individual Food Items . -- 



Fish 



Lampetra tridentata . Remains of the Pa- 

 cific lamprey were found in stonnachs of two 

 fur seals collected on the Farallon grounds in 

 1964 (appendix fig. 1). 



Alosa sapidissima . American shad was 

 identified in one stomach collected off Wash- 

 ington (appendix fig. 2). 



Clupea harengus pallasi . Pacific herring 

 was in the stomach of one fur seal collected 

 off Washington (appendix fig, 2) and in 44 

 stonnachs collected in shallow- water areas 

 (less than 100 fathonns) of sectors 4, 5, and 6, 

 north and east of St. Paul Island, Alaska (ap- 

 pendix fig. 5). It ranked second in importance 

 as a food species in the Bering Sea and repre- 

 sented 30.9 percent of the total volume. 



Engraulis mordax. Northernanchovy was 

 in stomachs of four fur seals collected off 

 Washington; off California, ranked fourth in 

 importance as a food species by volume (2.1 

 percent), occurring in 1 1 stomachs (appendix 

 fig. 3). 



Oncorhynchus spp. In stomachs of four 

 fur seals collected off the Washington coast 

 and in two stomachs from the Eureka grounds 

 (appendix fig. 2); represented 14.2 percent of 

 the total volume of food and ranked fourth in 

 importance off Washington. One stomach con- 

 tained pink salmon, O. gorbuscha .^ 



Salmon were in stomachs of seven fur 

 seals from the Bering Sea in sector-zone 1-7, 

 2-2, and 3-3, and represented 2.4 percent of 

 the total volume of food. One stomach contained 

 a 4-year-old sockeye salmon, O. nerka : one 

 contained a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old chum 

 salmon, O. keta ; and one contained pink sal- 

 mon' (appendix fig. 5). 



Mallotus villosus . Ranked second as a 

 food species in the Bering Sea in 1963, but 

 dropped to sixth place in 1964. A major con- 

 centration was found north of Cape Cheerful, 

 Unalaska Island, Alaska, in sector-zone 1-7, 

 in 1963, but only two stomachs contained the 

 species in the same area in 1964. As shown 

 in appendix figure 6, 24 of the 31 occurrences 

 of capelin were in sector 5, zones 2, 3, and 4. 

 Twenty undigested speciinens from one fur seal 

 stomach were 10.9 to 13.7 cm. long and av- 

 eraged 8.5 g. in weight. 



Thaleichthys pacificus . Found in nine 

 stomachs of fur seals off Washington, where 



it formed 17.2 percent of the total volume and 

 ranked second in importance as a food species 

 (appendix fig. 1); eulachon was also found 

 in fur seal stomachs in the same general area 

 in 1961.10 



Bathylagidae. Bathylagus was found in 

 stomachs of 59 fur seals from deep water in 

 sectors 1 and 2 in the Bering Sea (appendix 

 fig. 5); it ranked fourth in importance as a 

 food species and contributed 6.9 percent of 

 the total volume of food. As in 1963 (when the 

 genus was found in 92 stomachs), specific 

 identification was not nnade because speci- 

 mens sufficiently intact for identification were 

 not found, and skeletons were not available 

 for comparison. The species is believed to 

 be that named Therobromus callorhinus (seal 

 fish) from vertebrae found in fur seal stomachs 

 (Jordan and Gilbert, 1899) but later reclassi- 

 fied as a species of Bathylagus (Chapman, 

 1943). 



Magnisudis barysoma . Remains were 

 identified from the stomach of one fur seal 

 from the Eureka grounds in 1964 (appendix 

 fig. 1). Nine occurences were recorded in 

 stomachs of fur seals from the sanne area 

 in 1959.11 



Tarletonbeania crenularis . Identified 

 from partially digested specimens in a stom- 

 ach of one fur seal collected off California 

 (appendix fig. 1). Previously blue lantern- 

 fish occurred in stomachs of seals off Oregon 

 in 1959^^ and off California in 1961.13 



Cololabis saira. A nninor food in 1964 

 (only two occurrences), but third in impor- 

 tance as a food of fur seals off California in 

 19611'^ (appendix fig. 1). 



Gadidae. Fish of the family Gadidae oc- 

 curred in 189 stomachs in 1964. Of this total, 

 138 stomachs contained Merluccius productus 

 and 34 contained Theragra chalcogrammus . 

 Specimens in 17 stomachs were placed only 

 in the family Gadidae; these were small fish 

 (vertebral columns about 3 to 4 cm. long), 

 from stomachs collected in the Bering Sea 

 (appendix fig. 7). 



Pacific hake was the leading food in 

 stomachs of fur seals from California, Oregon, 



^ Specific identification of salmon were made from 

 scales by Raymond E. Anas, Marine Mammal Biological 

 Laboratory, Seattle, Wash. 



' See footnote 8. 



i°Cllfford H. Flscus, Karl Nlggol, and Ford Wilke. 

 1961. Pelagic fur seal investigations, CaUfornla to British 

 Columbia, 1961. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries, Marine Mammal Biological Labo- 

 ratory, Seattle, Wash. [Processed.] 



iiRarl Niggol, Clifford H. Flscus, and Ford Wilke. 

 1959. Pelagic fur seal investigations, California, Oregon, 

 and Washington, 1959. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Marine Mammal Biologi- 

 cal Laboratory, Seattle, Wash. [Processed.] 



i^See footnote 11. 



13 See footnote 10. 



l^See footnote 10. 



17 



