t 



L 



I 



+ + 



<7«- ** 



Gulf of Alaska 



- S6 OON 



Bering Sea 



~i r 



Figure 38. — Locations where 581 northern fur seals were collected whose stomachs contained Pacific sand 



lance, 1958-74. 



al. 1980"). The abundance of sand lance in this region is prob- 

 ably due to ideal oceanographic conditions, the rich zooplank- 

 ton which is the primary food of sand lance, and the available 

 sandy bottom habitat needed by this species. 



The Pacific sand lance is distributed in coastal waters from 

 southern California northward to the Bering Sea, Aleutian Is- 

 lands, Kurile and Commander Islands, and Okhotsk and 

 Japan Seas (Hart 1973). This fish is widely distributed through 

 the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The Atlantic 

 species, American sand lance — Ammodytes americanus, 

 which is commonly called sand eel, is fished commercially; the 

 North Pacific species is not fished but probably could support 

 a commercial fishery. Although no estimate of the relative 

 abundance of this fish is available for the Gulf of Alaska, Lae- 

 vastu and Favorite (1980) estimated capelin and sand lance 

 biomass at about 4.3 million t for the Bering Sea. Sand lances 

 in common with many of the other smaller fishes, form large 

 schools both inshore and offshore and is an important link be- 



"Kendall, A. W., Jr., J. R. Dunn, R. J. Wolotirawith J. H. Bowerman, Jr., 

 D. B. Dey, A. C. Matarese, and J. E.Munk. 1980. Zooplankton, including ichthy- 

 oplankton and decapod larvae, of the Kodiak shelf. NWAFC Processed rep. 80-8, 

 393 p. Northwest and Alaska Fish. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 2725 

 Montlake Blvd. E., Seattle, WA 98112. 



tween lower and higher trophic level predators including 

 salmon, halibut, seabirds, and marine mammals (Ainley and 

 Sanger 1979; Hart 1973). This species was reported as one of 

 the favorite foods of minke (piked) whales off Japan (Omura 

 and Sakiura 1956). 



Greenland turbot. — Seven species of flatfishes of the family 

 Pleuronectidae are among the 20 most common fish taxa in the 

 eastern Bering Sea (based on trawl surveys conducted in 1975). 

 Fur seals, however, generally have not preyed on these demer- 

 sal species to any great extent. This is probably because of the 

 fur seals' habit of swallowing fish whole. The general shape of 

 flatfishes would make it difficult for fur seals to swallow those 

 that are older than the juvenile stage. The only exception is 

 juvenile Greenland turbot. Other species of pinnipeds (north- 

 ern sea lion, Eumetopias jubatus, and harbor seal, Phoca 

 vitulina), do feed on these flatfishes. 



The first occurrence of Greenland turbot was noted in stom- 

 achs of fur seals taken north of the Pribilof Islands in 1963 and 

 has occurred as prey of fur seals from the same general area in 

 subsequent collections in 1964, 1973, and 1974 (Fiscus et al. 

 1965; Fiscus and Kajimura 1965; Kajimura et al. footnote 16; 

 and Kajimura and Sanger footnote 17). In 1973, this fish was 

 the fourth ranking principal finfish foraged by fur seals. The 



30 



