Table 28. — Observations of fur seals 1 in waters adjacent to the 

 eastern Aleutian Islands, 18 November to 3 December 1965 



Date 



Locality 



Seals 

 seen 



Number 



18 Nov. Off Cape Cheerful, Unalaska Island 4 



20 Nov. Off Cape Cheerful, Unalaska Island 5 



26 Nov. Unalaska, Akutan Pass to Avatanik 



Strait, Unimak Pass, and south side 

 Ugamak Island 25 



28 Nov. Unalaska off the waterfall 1 



1 Dec. Off north side of Akutan Island 4 



2 Dec. Akutan Pass 2 



3 Dec. Unalga Pass to Unimak Pass 6 



1 From Fisheries Research Board of Canada vessel 

 M/V G. B. Reed . 



2 G. C. Pike, I. B. MacAskie, and A. Craig. 1966. 

 Report on Canadian pelagic fur seal research in 1965. Fisheries 

 Research Board of Canada, Nanaimo, B.C. , 7 pp. , tables and 

 appendix. [Processed.] 



Aleutian Islands. Table 28 gives results of 

 this survey. 



Storms in the Bering Sea in November and 

 December made hunting extremely difficult 

 during the cruise of the G. B. Reed in 1965 

 and of the Pribilof in 1966. Operations were 

 usually restricted to the vicinity of the eastern 

 Aleutian Islands, where vessels could work in 

 somewhat sheltered waters. Daylight is about 

 8 hours in November and December. Obser- 

 vations or attempts to collect fur seals were 

 made from the Pribilof during parts of 1 days ; 

 the vessel was stormbound for 5 days. The 

 G. B. Reed was in the eastern Aleutian or 

 Pribilof Islands areas for 17 days. Her crew 

 made observations or attempts to collect fur 

 seals during parts of 10 days. The G. B_. Reed 

 was stormbound or confined to making inver- 

 tebrate surveys in sheltered waters for 7 days. 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries ves- 

 sel M/V Pribilof was used on a cruise in the 

 Bering Sea from 20 November to 4 Decem- 

 ber 1966. The objectives were to study the 

 autumn distribution, migration, and food of 

 fur seals, with emphasis on pups as theyleave 

 the Pribilof Islands. Sixty-two seals were 

 sighted: 37 in waters adjacent to the eastern 

 Aleutian Islands (table 29); 22 on 20 Novem- 

 ber from 161 km. (87 nautical miles) SE. of 



St. George Island to 57 km. (31 nautical miles) 

 NN£. of Cape Cheerful on Unalaska Island 

 (a distance of 120 km. [65 nautical miles]); 

 and 3 on 4 December from 41 km. (22 nautical 

 miles) SSE. of St. George Island to the village 

 of St. George and then to St. Paul Island. 

 Storms prevented the collection of seals on 

 20 November; two of the three animals seen 

 on 4 December were hunted without success. 

 Except for a few animals that may have been 

 sea lions in the water near East Reef Rookery, 

 we saw no other seals ashore or in water near 

 St. George Island. 



According to Walter Dyakanoff (personal 

 communication, 21 November 1966), a resident 

 of Unalaska, both young and old seals were 

 plentiful off Unalaska about 8 November, about 

 2 weeks before we arrived in the eastern 

 Aleutian Islands. 



C. H. Fiscus, resident biologist Richard 

 A. Hajny, and biological technician Lavrenty 

 Stepetin collected 20 fur seal pups on St. Paul 

 Island in November. On 14 November they col- 

 lected 4 from Zapadni Reef Rookery and 10 

 from Northeast Point Rookery. On 15 Novem- 

 ber they collected six from Zapadni Reef 

 Rookery. The pups were collected primarily to 

 determine if these small seals feed on inver- 

 tebrates and fish before they leave the Pribilof 



35 



