CLUPEA HARENGUS PAL LAS I 

 ENGRAULIS MORDAX 



SALMONIOAE 

 MALLOTUS VILLOSUS 

 THALEICHTHYS PACIFICUS 

 MERLUCCIUS PRODUCTUS 

 SEBASTODES SPR 



ANOPLOPOMA FIMBRIA 



K:;:::::::::] OCCURRENCE 

 VOLUME 



20 

 PERCENT 



Figure 21. — Percentage volume and percentage occurrence of principal food species in fur seal stomactis collected 



off Washington, 1967-68 



capelin, Mallotus villosus , constituted 83.3 

 percent of the total food volume (fig. 21 ). Salmon 

 (60 occurrences) was the leading food, contrib- 

 uting 31.7 percent of the total food volume. Fur 

 seals ate all five species of Pacific salmon 

 (pink, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha ; chum, Q. keta ; 

 coho, O. kisutch ; sockeye, O. nerka ; and 

 Chinook, O. tshawytscha ). The salmon were 

 imnaature with no ocean growth on the 

 scales .' Figures 22 to 25 show species with 

 frequency of occurrence greater than 10. 



Off Alaska in May-August 1968, 323 (71 per- 

 cent) of 456 stomachs contained food (tables 

 49-53). Walleye pollock, Theragra chalco- 

 grammus ; squids; and Atka mackerel, Pleuro- 

 grammus monopterygius , constituted 84.9 per- 

 cent of the total food volume (fig. 26). Walleye 

 pollock was the leading species eaten by seals 

 in three of four areas surveyed in Alaska and 

 contributed 37.8 percent of the total volume. 

 Three species of Pacific salmon (pink, chum, 

 and sockeye) in stomachs of fur seals taken in 

 Alaska waters were mature and contributed 5.1 

 percent of the total food volume (19 occur- 

 rences). Two seals were taken alongside a 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries salmon gill 

 net research vessel as the net was being hauled. 

 The stomach of one contained a mature 5-year- 

 old chum salmon, Atka mackeral, and squids. 



Kenneth H. Mosher and Gunnar Safsten, Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory, Seattle, 

 Wash., determined ages from the salmon scales. 



The other stomach contained walleye pollock, 

 Atka mackeral, and squids. Figures 27 to 32 

 show species with frequency of occurrence 

 greater than 10. 



The feeding habits of yearling seals (1967 

 year class) during their first winter at sea were 

 studied by examining stomach contents and 

 fecal material from a sample of 60 collected in 

 January and February 1968 off Washington. Re- 

 mains of fish vertebrae and otoliths were in 

 97 percent of the fecal samples, whereas, 20 

 of the corresponding 60 stomachs were empty. 

 Remains of an eye lens, a bird feather, crus- 

 taceans, insects, pebbles, a lamprey, and squid 

 beaks were also found in the fecal samples. 



RELATION OF FEEDING HABITS TO 

 COMMERCIAL FISHERIES 



The feeding habits of fur seals seem to be 

 governed by abundance and availability of food. 

 Salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) were the most 

 valuable commercial fish eaten by fur seals 

 collected off Washington (60 occurrences) and 

 Alaska (19 occurrences) in 1967-68. Salmon 

 formed a larger proportion of the diet of seals 

 off Washington in 1968 than in any previous 

 collection. Other commercially important fish 

 available off Washington are rockfish and 

 eulachon. In Alaska, walleye pollock are caught 

 by foreign fleets for minced meat and fish meal 

 products. Squids, an important food of fur seals, 

 are not fished commercially by the United 

 States off Washington or in Alaska waters. 



53 



