Total 1,286 



34 I. 2B9 1,227 1 . 308j.'6. 544 



9''9 1,058 1,027 



829 4. 733i' 



73. 8 79. 7 6:5 63 4 72. 3 



6-26 1.135 1,134 1,180 979 952 5,430 945 988 999 825 792 4,549 B3 3 ^3.4 64 4 64 3 63.2 o3. 



1/ Six seala have been omitted oecause age ia not known; three seals are omitted aecause reproductive condition is not known 

 2/ Post partum cows are treated as pregnant cowe in this taole. 



added no new species. The following 1 1 species 

 of fish and squids were identified: 



Clupea harengus pallasi (herring) 



Oncorhynchus sp. (salmon) 



Mallotus villosus (capelin) 



Thaleichthys pacificus (eulachon) 



Theragra chalcogrammus (walleye pollock) 



Pleurogrammus monoplerygius (Atka mackerel) 



Ammodyles hexaplerus (sand lance) 



Bathymasteridae (searchers) 



Gonatus fabricii (squid) 



Gonatus magister (squid) 



Gonatopsis sp, (squid) 



Excluding cephalopods, few invertebrates 

 have been found in fur seal stomachs. Occa- 

 sional specimens are thought to have been 

 taken accidentally, or to have been consumed 

 by fish that were later eaten by seals. A few 

 were known ectoparasites of fish. However, 

 several pup stomachs collected late in the 

 fall of 1961 at St. Paul Island contained in- 

 vertebrates, and it is possible that pups in 

 their postweaning period feed to some degree 

 upon invertebrates. 



The fur seal commonly swallows small fish 

 and squids without coming to the surface, but 



usually eats large fish at the surface. The 

 seal kills large fish by biting the head, or by 

 shaking the fish vigorously. Occasionally the 

 head may be bitten off and the body torn into 

 smaller pieces before it is swallowed. Most 

 of the fish found in stomachs in 1962 were 

 small, whole fish. Theragra specimens smaller 

 than 30 to 35 cm. long were usually found 

 intact, but Oncorhynchus, the only Other large 

 fish in the collection in 1962, were usually 

 broken into pieces and the heads frequently 

 were missing. 



The fur seal feeds primarily at night and 

 in the early morning over much of its range, 

 since squids and other species are more 

 readily available during darkness. Figure 18 

 shows the percent stomachs with food in rela- 

 tion to the time of collection. More than 65 

 percent of the seals collected before 0900 

 had food in the stomach. The proportion 

 decreased to 27.7 percent at 1500, when it 

 began to increase. The low of 27.7 percent 

 is higher than was found in previous years 

 off the California coast and is the result of 

 seals feeding on Mallotus throughout the day. 



Water temperature ranged from 5° to 13° 

 C. during the 1962 field season. It had no 



36 



