ing, but they recorded few at-sea observations. 

 Alverson, Wilimovsky, and Wilke (1960) made 

 casual observations in August 1959 from Cape 

 Lisburne to Kotzebue while engaged in fisheries 

 research (Alverson and Wilimovsky 1966). 



Much of the information on seabirds in the 

 Chukchi Sea has been obtained by land-based 

 observers and has been summarized by Bailey 

 (1948) and Gabrielson and Lincoln (1959). 

 Barrow has been the center of ornithological 

 work in arctic Alaska. Harting (1871) col- 

 lected in the area of Barrow and in Kotzebue 

 Sound from 1852 to 1854. Murdoch (1885) 

 collected at Barrow from 1881 to 1883 as part 

 of the International Polar Expedition. Mc- 

 Ilhenny (Stone, 1900) spent 1897 and 1898 

 doing extensive collecting at Barrow. In 1921 

 and 1922, A. M. Bailey and R. W. Hendee 

 (Bailey, 1948) collected along the entire arctic 

 coast of Alaska with the most intensive work 

 being done in the area of Wainwright. From 

 1922 to 1945 Charles Brower (Bailey, 1948) 

 collected at Barrow and greatly increased the 

 number of species known for that area. Pitelka 

 and his students have amassed a number of 

 unpublished "opportunistic" records of sea- 

 birds for the Barrow area during studies of 

 shorebird ecology. Their only publications on 

 seabird species, however, are Pitelka, Tomich, 

 and Treichel (1955a, 1955b), and Maher 

 (1970). Ornithological records from the Bar- 

 row- Wainwright area southwest to Point Hope 

 are few and scattered. Tarelton Bean (1882) 

 collected along the Siberian and Alaskan shores 

 of the Chukchi Sea in 1880 while F. S. Hersey 

 (1916) visited both coasts in 1914. Benjamin 

 Sharp visited points along the Alaskan coast in 

 the summer of 1895, as did Seale (1898) in 

 1896. The Cape Thompson and Kotzebue Sound 

 areas have been more intensively studied. Grin- 

 nell (1900) spent a year in Kotzebue Sound in 

 1897 and 1898 collecting birds. During the 

 Project Chariot Program (Wilimovsky and 

 Wolfe 1966) the birds of the Cape Thompson 

 region were studied from 1959 to 1961 (Wil- 

 liamson, Thompson and Hines, 1966 and 

 Swartz, 1966). 



Studies of marine mammals in the Chukchi 

 Sea area are likewise few. The whales, seals, 

 walrus, and bears that are utilized for skins, 

 oil, and food by the Eskimos move north with 

 the edge of the pack ice in summer and are 



mainly hunted during migration in the fall and 

 spring or from the ice in winter. Investigations, 

 such as that of Johnson, Fiscus, Ostenson, and 

 Barbour (1966) in the Chukchi Sea, during 

 Project Chariot have depended largely on kills 

 by native hunters and less on at-sea or aerial 

 surveys. The major sources of general informa- 

 tion on northern Alaskan marine mammals are 

 Scammon (1874), Nelson and True (1887), 

 Bailey and Hendee (1926), Rainer (1945), 

 Brooks (1954), and Bee and Hall (1956). 



CRUISE TRACK AND ENVIRONMENTAL 

 CONDITIONS 



The cruise track in the area of concentrated 

 study between Icy Cape and Cape Lisburne 

 was determined partly by ice conditions that 

 the ship encountered. In general, the northern 

 and western portions of the area were surveyed 

 early in the cruise while the pack ice was less 

 extensive; the inshore, southern portion was 

 last to be sampled. The entire cruise track and 

 all station coordinates can be found in the pre- 

 face to this Oceanographic Report, while fig- 

 ures 1 and 2 present only stations and transects 

 where bird watches were kept. Dates, hours, and 

 positions for transects and stations are given 

 in table I. No observations were made at night 

 when the ship was sailing between stations. 

 Station numbers, shown in squares on figure 1, 

 are the same as those used for oceanographic, 

 geological, and marine biological sampling in 

 other phases of the study. Transects, with 

 ship's direction indicated by an arrow, are 

 designated by number on the midpoint. In this 

 paper "the study area" denotes the zone of 

 intensive investigation between Icy Cape and 

 Cape Lisburne (stations 8-91 and transects 

 9-41), in which we operated, 25 September to 

 17 October. Observations were also made while 

 the .ship was anchored and in transit near 

 Point Barrow 22-23 September (stations 1, 

 1' and transects 1-3), in transit south to Icy 

 Cape 23-24 September (stations 5-7 and tran- 

 sects 4-8), and in the Bering Strait en route to 

 Nome 18 October (transect 42) (fig. 2). 



The eastern Chukchi Sea is a shallow basin 

 with depths of 10 to 30 fathoms and no prom- 

 inent features on its gravel, sand and silt 

 bottom. The main currents are from the south 

 through the Bering Strait. Details of bottom 



112 



