Sciaenidae. One small juvenile fish from 

 this family was found in a stomach collected in 

 lat. 37° 20'N., long. 123° 39' W.^^ This specimen 

 is the first sciaenid found in a fur seal stomach. 



Sebastodes spp. Rockfishes have been of 

 minor importance as fur seal food off Cali- 

 fornia. One seal taken in lat. 37° 00' N., long. 

 1 22° 37' W. contained the remains of one rock- 

 fish. 



Pleuronectidae. Flatfishes of this family 

 were in a stonnach collected in lat. 37° 45' N., 

 long. 122058' W. Flatfishes have beenofnegli- 

 gible innportance as fur seal food. 



Tremoctopus sp. The remains of this small 

 pelagic octopus were found in the stomach of 

 a seal taken in lat. 34° 04' N., long. 121° 04' W. 

 Previously this octopus occurred in 28 seal 

 stomachs in 1961 and I in 1965. 



Squids. Squids are a major food item of fur 

 seals in all areas in which seals range, in- 

 cluding the eastern and western North Pacific 

 Ocean, Bering Sea, Sea of Japan, and the Sea 

 of Okhotsk. Off California squids are one of the 

 most important foods of fur seals. Squid beaks 

 and pens remain in the stomach long after the 

 soft bodies are digested. These beaks and pens 

 are listed as trace announts when no body 

 fragments are found. 



The following squids were found in stomachs 

 in 1966: Loligo opalescens , Onychoteuthis 

 sp.,^-* Moroteuthis robusta , Abraliopsis sp., 

 and Gonatus fabricii . The remains of another 

 squid, Chiroteuthis veranyi , were found loose 

 in a barrel of stomachs and had probably 

 dropped out of a stomach before the col- 

 lection was fixed by formaldehyde. This oc- 

 currence of C_. veranyi in fur seal stomachs 

 is the first fronn the eastern Pacific Ocean, 

 although the species was found in stomachs 

 of fur seals taken in the western Pacific 

 Ocean in 1959 (North Pacific Fur Seal Com- 

 mission, 1965). 



Loligo opalescens ranked fourth in fre- 

 quency of occurrence and fifth in total volume 

 of food in 1966. Although the total food volunne 

 of L. opalescens was low in 1966, the 70 oc- 

 currences (fig. C-5) are comparable to the 

 number of occurrences in 1964 and 1965. The 

 dorsal mantle length of two specimens was 67 

 and 90 ram. One stomach had the remains 

 (pens and beaks) of 65 L. opalescens. 



Onychoteuthis sp. ranked third in frequency 

 (71 occurrences) and fourth in total volume. 

 Onychoteuthis sp. were found throughout the 

 collection area in 1966 (fig. C-6). One stomach 

 had the remains of 34 squids, mainly beaks and 

 pens. 



^^Identification was made by A. D. Welander, College 

 of Fisheries. University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 



^^ Onychoteuthis banksli and O. borealijaponlcus were 

 until recently considered synonymous. Recent evidence 

 Indicates that both may be valid species. Until this ques- 

 tion is resolved, these specimens can only be identified to 

 geiius. 



Moroteuthis robusta is probably not com- 

 monly eaten because of its large size. The re- 

 mains of the cartilaginous end cones of M. 

 robusta were found in two stomachs--one col- 

 lected in lat. 3404O' N., long. 121031'W. and 

 one in lat. 35047' N., long. 1220l6'W. This 

 record is the third and fourth occurrence of 

 this species in seal stomachs since 1958; the 

 other two also were off California, one in I96I 

 and one in 1965. 



Abraliopsis sp. has been a minor food item 

 of fur seals collected off California. In 1966 

 this squid was found in four seals taken be- 

 tween Monterey and the Farallon Islands (fig. 

 C-4). It was found in a few seal stomachs from 

 the same general area in I96I and 1965. 



Gonatus fabricii . This species was noted in 

 stomachs of 23 fur seals collected in 1966 

 (fig. C-2). G. fabricii was also a minor food 

 species of seals off California in 1964 and 1965. 



Squids from 28 seals were identified only to 

 the family Gonatidae and those from 13 were 

 unidentified. 



Miscellaneous. A small sea bird, Ptycho- 

 ramphus aleutica (Cassin's Auklet), was found 

 in a stomach of a fur seal taken near the 

 Farallon Islands. Other items were a piece of 

 wood in 1 stomach and 17 parasitic isopods, 

 Rocinella belliceps, in another. 



RELATION OF FUR SEALS TO 

 COMMERCIAL FISHERIES 



The effects of fur seal predation on com- 

 mercially important food species cannot be 

 accurately appraised with present knowledge 

 of the ocean environment and ecology. Data 

 collected to date indicate, however, that the 

 food of seals is governed by abundance and 

 availability of the prey species, and that 

 predation on important comnnercial species is 

 negligible. 



An indication of the extent to which fur seals 

 eat commercial food species can be gained by 

 comparing the species eaten by seals with 

 those taken commercially. The 10 leading 

 commercial species (in order of pounds landed) 

 taken from California waters in 1964 (Cali- 

 fornia Fish and Game, 1965) were: Trachurus 

 symmetricus (jack mackerel), Thunnus ala- 

 lunga (albacore). Scomber diego (Pacific mack- 

 erel), Loligo opalescens (squid), Sardinops 

 caerulea (sardine), Oncorhynchus tshawytscha 

 and O. kisutch (king and silver salmon), Mi- 

 crostomus pacificus (Dover sole), all species 

 of Sebastodes and Sebastolobus (rockfish), 

 Engraulis mordax (northern anchovy), and 

 Parophrys vetulus (English sole). Four spe- 

 cies, jack mackerel, squid, rockfish, and 

 anchovy, were found in both fur seal stomachs 

 and in the list of 10 leading commercial 

 species. Jack mackerel and rockfish, how- 

 ever, occurred only once in seal ston-iachs in 

 1966. 



66 



