SUMMARY 



The 10th year of pelagic fur seal research 

 required by the Interim Convention on Con- 

 servation of North Pacific Fur Seals was con- 

 ducted off Washington from 6 January through 

 12 February 1967. 



The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 Pribilof Islands supply vessel, M/V Pribilof , 

 and the chartered vessel, M/V Tonquin, were 

 used in the research. The Pribilof was used 

 to survey offshore Washington waters extend- 

 ing seaward 769 km. (415 nautical miles), 

 and the Tonquin was used to collect seals 

 close to shore. 



Most seals were within 111 km. (60 nautical 

 miles) of land. Seals were collected off Cape 

 Flattery and westward to La Perouse Bank 

 in January and February. They were common 

 on the Continental Shelf from Grays Harbor 

 northward towards Umatilla Reef in early 

 February. 



Of 835 seals sighted off Washington, 131 

 were collected, 27 were wounded and lost, 

 and 21 were killed and lost. 



More young seals were taken off Wash- 

 ington during January and February 1967 

 than off California during the same period 

 in 1966. 



Two fur seals were seen off northern 

 California during three cruises covering a 

 distance of 4,425 km. (2,388 nautical miles) 

 and 280 hours of observations off northern 

 California in September and off Washington 

 and Oregon in August and September 1967. 



A research cruise in the Bering Sea off the 

 Pribilof Islands to Unalaska and Unimak Pass 



continued from 20 November to 4 December 

 1966. Of 32 seals sighted, 1 was collected, 

 1 was wounded and lost, and 1 was killed 

 and lost. 



Four tagged seals, two that had lost tags, 

 and two that were marked as pups by removing 

 part of a flipper, were taken in 1967. 



The youngest gravid females taken were one 

 multiparous and three primiparous 5-year- 

 old seals. Fifty-seven percent of the female 

 seals were gravid. 



Of 66 fetuses taken in 1967, 38 were females 

 and 28 were males. 



No gooseneck barnacles or algae were at- 

 tached to the fur of seals taken in 1967. 



Salmonidae (32.3 percent) and herring (24.2 

 percent) contributed over half the total food 

 volume. The remains of shrimp were found 

 for the first time by the United States in two 

 fur seal stomachs. 



Gastrointestinal contents and parasites 

 showed that 45 percent of a collection of 

 20 pups from St. Paul Island had fed on 

 marine organisms in November while still 

 nursing. 



No satisfactory assessment of the effect of 

 fur seals on commercially important marine 

 species is possible. 



A United States observer spent April and 

 May at the Japanese fur seal research base 

 in Iwate Prefecture. During this period re- 

 search workers saw 599 fur seals, collected 

 123, and lost 11 that sank and 1 that was 

 wounded. 



LITERATURE CITED 



AKIMUSHKIN, I. I. 



1963. Golovonogie mollyuski morei SSR 

 (Cephalopods of the seas of the 

 U.S.S.F.). Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk 

 SSR, Moskva. (Translated by A. Mer- 

 cado, Israel Program for Scientific 

 Translations, 223 pp., 1965.) 



AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



1960. A list of common and scientific names 

 of fishes from the United States and 

 Canada. 2d ed. Its Spec. Publ. 2, 102 pp. 



AUSTIN, O. L., and FORD WILKE. 



1950. Japanese fur sealing. General Head- 

 quarters, Supreme Commander for the 

 Allied Powers, Natural Resources Sec- 

 tion, Rep. 129, 91 pp. [Reproduced as 

 Fish Wildl. Serv., Spec. Sci. Rep. Wildl. 

 6, 1950.] 



BERRY, S. S. 



1912. A review of the cephalopods of west- 

 ern North America. Bull. U.S. Bur, 

 Fish. 30: 267-336. 

 1914. The cephalopods of the Hawaiian 

 Islands. U.S. Bur. Fish., Bull. 32: 257- 

 362. 



CLARKE, MALCOLM R. 



1962. The identification of cephalopod 

 "beaks" and the relationship between 

 beak size and total body weight. Bull. 

 Brit. Mus. (Natur. Hist.) Zool. 8: 422- 

 480, 10 pis. 

 CLEMENS, W. A., and G. V. WILBY. 



1961. Fishes of the Pacific Coast of Canada. 

 Fish. Res. Bd. Can., Bull. 69 (2d ed.), 

 368 pp. 

 CLOTHIER, CHARLES R. 



1950. A key to some southern California 

 fishes based on vertebral characters. 

 Calif. Div. Fish Game, Fish. Bull. 79, 

 83 pp. 

 FISCUS, CLIFFORD H., GARY A. BAINES, 

 and HIROSHI KAJIMURA. 

 1965. Pelagic fur seal investigations, 

 Alaska, 1963. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., 

 Spec. Sci. Rep. Fish. 489, iv + 33 pp. 

 FISCUS, CLIFFORD H., GARY A. BAINES, 

 and FORD WILKE. 

 1964. Pelagic fur seal investigations, Alas- 

 kan waters, 1962. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., 

 Spec. Sci. Rep. Fish. 475, iii + 59 pp. 



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