Table 6. --Kill of female seals, by year class, 1 Pribilof Islands, Alaska., 1939-62 



Includes pelagic kill of United States and Canada, 1958-63. In addition to the females 

 listed, 50, 145 age 11 and older (10+), 17, 790 age 9 and older (8+), and 601 unclassified were 

 taken. 



of Kitovi Rookery in 1961 was completed in 

 1963. A separate report on this study will be 

 made. 



Age Classification 



As in 1961 and 1962, scarcity of females on 

 the hauling grounds caused a need to drive 

 animals from rookeries to achieve the quota 

 of 43,750. Commercial killing of females since 

 1956 has been partly responsible for the lack 

 of surplus females, especially by removing, 

 from the hauling grounds, an accumulation of 

 animals older than age 10. Most of these 

 females apparently were no longer producing 

 young. Additional females have been lost 

 through natural mortality. 



Regardless of the effects of herd reduction, 

 it is difficult to understand why young females 

 are not more abundant on the hauling grounds. 

 Only 646 females of ages 3 and 4 were taken 

 mil hauling ground drives on St. Paul Island 



by 20 August. In contrast, 16,498 3- and 4- 

 year-old females were taken from hauling 

 grounds by the same date in 1958. Possibly 

 the herd reduction program, apart from elimi - 

 nating females, has also caused young females 

 from recent year classes to behave differently 

 from those born previously. Behavior studies 

 and observations of rookery areas on St. Paul 

 Island in 1963 showed that many 3- and 4-year- 

 old females were on the rookeries in August. 

 The data in table 8 support the general obser- 

 vations in that they show little difference in the 

 age compositions of females taken from hauling 

 grounds and from the rookeries. Whether this 

 condition is normal or is a result of a reduc- 

 tion in the total number of females is not known 

 because comparative data are not available. 



Females killed on St. Paul Island are classi- 

 fied by age in appendix tables 8 and 9; those 

 taken on St. George Island are in appendix 

 tables 10 and 11. Year class contributions to 

 the female kills on the Pribilof Islands are 

 given in table 6 for the years 1939-62. Table 7 



