months are generally known, but little progress 

 has been nriade on estimating the numbers of 

 seals on migration routes and in wintering 

 areas in the eastern Pacific. Sampling indi- 

 cates, however, that few seals under age 8 

 originating from Robben Island or the Com- 

 mander Islands migrate along the coast of 

 North America. 



The most dependable data on pregnancy and 

 mortality rates are obtained from seals col- 

 lected at sea. These data are essential for 

 population and recruitment estimates for the 

 Pribilof seal herd. 



Investigations off California from April to 

 June 1965 expanded studies carried on in the 

 spring of 1964. A collection of seals on the 

 salmon trolling grounds off Washington pro- 

 vided information about these animals in an 

 area where a salmon population was present 

 during the time of the study. 



EQUIPMENT, METHODS, AND PERSONNEL 



Vessels, boats, equipnnent, and methods used 

 in hunting and in collecting data were described 

 by Fiscus, Baines, and Wilke (1964). Equip- 

 ment and methods are now standardized, al- 

 though specialized equipment and techniques 

 are used dependent on collecting requirements. 

 The frontispiece shows a dory equipped for 

 sealing. Equipment carried in dories has been 

 selected on the basis of experience at sea 

 since 1958. 



Seals are taken frona the vessel, or from a 

 dory, with 12-gage shotguns, loaded with buck- 

 shot. Seals are weighed, measured, and skinned, 

 and the stomachs, reproductive tracts, and 

 right upper canine teeth are saved for exami- 

 nation in the laboratory (ages are determined 

 from longitudinal sections of the canine teeth). 



A study of the accuracy of determining age 

 from upper canine teeth of fur seals is in 

 progress at the Marine Mammal Biological 

 Laboratory. Preliminary results in reading 

 the ages of sectioned teeth of seals of known 

 age indicate the following percent error: males 

 age 2 through 5, error by three readers (33 

 teeth) ranged from 9 to 24 percent with the 

 greatest error of tl year; females age 1 

 through 7, error for three readers (93 teeth) 

 ranged from 9 to 25 percent with 99 percent 

 differing by no more than +1 year and a 

 greatest error of +2 years; females 8 through 

 13, error for two readers (39 teeth) ranged 

 from 41 to 59 percent with 91 percent within 

 i\ year and a greatest error of -4to +2 years. 

 The sample of known- age males age 6 and 

 females age 14 and older was too small to 

 use in this study. 



The method of handling skins described by 

 Fiscus and Kajimura (1965) was modified in 

 1965 to include blubbering (the act of removing 

 fat, muscle, and connective tissue from the 

 skin) prior to salting. This was done to deter- 

 mine if differences in quality of curing existed 



between skins blubbered soon after collecting 

 and those blubbered several weeks to several 

 months after they were taken. After a skin was 

 stripped from the seal carcass and washed, it 

 was soaked in clean sea water overnight, then 

 blubbered on a portable fleshing beam, drained, 

 and cured in salt for 2 weeks before barreling. 



Observations of marine mammals and col- 

 lections of fur seals in 1965 were made off 

 Washington from the chartered purse seiners 

 M/V St. Michael ' 2-4 April and M/V Har- 

 mony ' 6-24 April; the St. Michael was also 

 used off central California 11 April to 23 June. 



Records for three female seals are not 

 complete. These three animals are included in 

 the sections on distribution of seals by date 

 and locality, and relative abundance and size 

 of groups, only. 



Biologists aboard the St. Michael were Clif- 

 ford H, Fiscus and Hiroshi Kajimura. Biolo- 

 gists on the Harmony were Raymond E, Anas, 

 Alton Y. Roppel, and Ford Wilke. Assistants 

 on the vessels and in the Seattle laboratory 

 were Richard K. Stroud and James A. Wood. 

 Allan H. Vogel assisted in the Seattle labora- 

 tory. Hiroshi Kajimura observed pelagic re- 

 search in Japan from 10 April to 10 May 1965 

 (app. B). 



RESEARCH IN 1965 



In 1965, fur seal research was carried out 

 at sea off the coast of Washington between lat, 

 46° N. and 49° N., in April, and off the coast 

 of California between lat. 36° N. and 39° N., 

 from April to May. 



Distribution off Washington 



Seals were widely scattered and scarce off 

 Cape Flattery and the northern Washington 

 coast in early April; however, in mid-April 

 concentrations of seals were located 10 to 20 

 miles off Grays Harbor (fig. 1). For example, 

 96 seals were seen 1 5 April and 145 on 22 April 

 in water from 30 to 100 fathoms (55 to 182 m.) 

 deep. 



Surface water temperatures off Washington 

 ranged from 8° to 12° C. in the survey areas. 

 Off Cape Flattery, temperatures were mostly 

 10° to 11° C. 



Distribution off California 



With two exceptions, investigations were 

 carried out between Bodega Head (lat. 38° 18' 

 N.) and Pt, Sur (lat. 36° 18' N.) from shore to 

 about 100 miles out. Two cruises were made 

 south from Pt. Sur to Morro Bay (lat. 35° 23' 

 N.) to survey what in the past has been a 



2 M/V St. Michael : registered length 72.5 feet, 107 

 gross tons, 380 horsepower, cruising speed 10 knots. 



'M/V Harmony : registered length 70.5 feet, 90 gross 

 tons, 220 horsepower, cruising speed 9 knots. 



