48 



L. W. SOWL 



formation was dependent upon interest and 

 opportunity. The second is the reconnaissance 

 period; during this period investigators were 

 dispatched to a particular area to gather 

 general information for management applica- 

 tion. This period begins with Murie's exten- 

 sive investigations of the Alaska Peninsula 

 and the Aleutian Islands; I see it extending 

 from 1936 to 1975. In 1975 the need for data 

 became so acute that it was necessary to enter 

 the third period, one of intensive data gather- 

 ing. Knowing where the big seabird colonies 

 were located and knowing their general 

 species composition was no longer adequate. 

 The current intensive data-gathering effort in 

 the waters over oil and gas leasing areas is a 

 partial response to the recognition of this 

 inadequacy. 



In this paper I draw some tentative conclu- 

 sions relative to the status of the 26 species of 

 primary seabirds (Fisher and Lockley 1954) 

 breeding in, or which may have bred in, the 

 northern and western Gulf of Alaska area. 

 This area extends from Cape Fairweather, 

 59 N 138W, westerly along the coast to Ika- 

 tan Bay, 55 N 163 W, at the end of the 

 Alaska Peninsula. These bird species tend to 

 be colonial, but not exclusively so. Two birds 

 which are primary seabirds, the mew gull 

 (Larus canus) and Bonaparte's gull (L. phila- 

 delphia), have not been included because they 

 tend to be more riverine than marine in habit. 

 Several marine ducks have been excluded be- 

 cause they are secondary seabirds. 



Information from the early exploratory 

 period is summarized under the next section. 

 The more detailed information from the recon- 

 naissance period is discussed in the species 

 accounts. 



Summary of the 

 Historical Record 



The history of ornithological field work in 

 the Gulf of Alaska goes back 235 years to 20 

 July 1741. On that day Bering's sur- 

 geon/naturalist, Georg W. Steller, spent a 

 scant 10 h ashore on Kayak Island. He col- 

 lected a single bird. This bird, later named for 

 Steller, reminded him of a plate of the blue jay 

 by Make Catesby, the colonial-era predeces- 

 sor of Audubon, in Volume 1 of the Natural 



History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama 

 Islands (Stejneger's annotated translation of 

 Steller's journal in Golder 1925). Collection of 

 the bird confirmed for Steller that the first 

 Russian Expedition had reached America. 



Steller was an accomplished naturalist, but 

 his overbearing and superior manner had ap- 

 parently sorely irritated Bering and his offi- 

 cers long before the expedition reached Kayak 

 Island. The seamen made little effort to go 

 ashore anywhere in Alaska and Steller was 

 blocked from doing so as well. In addition to 

 Kayak Island, he was able to go ashore only 

 on Nagai Island, first with a water party on 

 30 August and again the next day. He noted 

 that "all sorts of waterbirds in abundance 

 were seen." These included two kinds of cor- 

 morants, auks, ducks, gulls, divers, pigeon 

 guillemots (Cepphus columba), tufted puffins 

 (Lunda cirrhata), and horned puffins (Frater- 

 cula corniculata). 



Stejneger's comment on the identity of the 

 cormorants is interesting because, based on 

 his experience, he assumed them to be pelagic 

 and double-crested cormorants (Phalacro- 

 corax pelagicus and P. auritus). He gave no 

 thought to red-faced cormorants (P. urile) 

 which are now common there. 



Steller noted on 6 September off Bird Island 

 in the Shumagin Islands, that "when we were 

 out to sea about half a mile we were especially 

 astonished at the untold numbers of seabirds 

 which we saw on the northern side of the is- 

 land." These birds were listed as cormorants, 

 auks, horned puffins, fulmars (Fulmarus gla- 

 cialis), pigeon guillemots, black oyster- 

 catchers (Haematopus backmani), and a pied 

 diver which Stejneger assumed was an an- 

 cient murrelet (Synthliboramphus antiquus). 



On 15 September when Bering's vessel, the 

 St. Peter, was south of Amukta Pass, Steller 

 recorded observing "river gulls." The obser- 

 vation is not as interesting as Stejneger's 

 comment (Golder 1925) concerning it. Stej- 

 neger stated that no true river gulls lived in 

 the Aleutians and these must, therefore, have 

 been another small gull with red feet. He 

 thought they must have been the red-legged 

 kittiwake (Rissa brevirostris), which "in- 

 habits the Aleutian Islands from Bering Is- 

 landtoSannak." 



Thirty-seven years after Bering's voyage, 

 Captain James Cook sailed into the Gulf of 



