only human on the islands.) The people were returned in early 

 summer 1944 (Bower 1944a:42, 1946:55). 



Fur seal research came to a halt. Wilbert M. Chapman con- 

 tinued for several months to study the bony skeleton of fishes. 

 He reported (Chapman 1943:157-158) that the mysterious 

 "seal fish" of Lucas (1899c), hitherto known only from fur 

 seal stomach contents, was actually the deepsea form Bathy- 

 lagus sp. Strangely, the "seal fish" was not identified in seal 

 stomachs in the 20th century until the summer of 1963. Chap- 

 man (1942:194) also made an estimate of the amount of fish 

 and squid consumed annually by the Pribilof seal herd: 2.5 

 billion pounds (1.1 billion kg). A closer estimate today would 

 be 1.5 billion pounds (0.7 billion kg). 



1943 



Sealing was resumed in 1943 under a wartime blackout. The 

 take of 117,164 skins was the largest since the uncontrolled 

 slaughter of the year 1868. It represents about as many 3- and 

 4-yr-old males as can be taken on land in a season. 



From 15 May to 4 October 1943, Lawrence J. Palmer, a Fish 

 and Wildlife Service biologist with long experience in studies 

 of reindeer, was stationed on St. Paul Island (Palmer 1943"). 

 His main assignment was to record the number of branded 

 male 2- and 3-yr-old seals appearing in drives, and from the 

 resulting data, to estimate the total size of each age group. He 

 recorded the following numbers of branded animals (Palmer 

 footnote 11, p. 31-32): 











Total adjusted 











for seals released 











and recurring 



Wales 



Clubbed 



Released 



Total 



in drives 



2-yr 



138 



134 



272 



— 



3-yr 



448 



285 



733 



589 



Unfortunately, he had no good way of calculating the pro- 

 portion of branded to unbranded animals within the 3-yr-old 

 age group, i.e., he had no good way of estimating the total 

 number of 3-yr-olds killed. The age composition of the kill was 

 (as we now know) very imperfectly indicated by the data ob- 

 tained in 1943 from measuring the "field length" of seals 

 killed. At any rate, Palmer (footnote 1 1 , p. 34) approached the 

 truth in concluding that the computed herd size was one-half 

 million too large. 



Palmer obtained the first quantitative information on the 

 percentage of marked animals returning to the place of their 

 birth. Of 111 tagged 2-yr-old males recovered in 1943, 28% 

 were on a hauling ground adjacent to the home rookery 

 (Palmer footnote 11, p. 40). 



1944 



Scheffer returned to the Pribilofs in the summer of 1944 and 

 in many subsequent summers. The main research accomplish- 

 ments in 1944 were as follows: 1) A collection of known-age 

 (marked) specimens was begun. From 43 males and one 4-yr- 



Palmer, L. J. 1943. Investigations of branded fur seals, Pribilof Islands, 

 Alaska, 1943. Unpubl. manuscr., 45 p. Northwest and Alaska Fish. Cent., Natl. 

 Mar. Mammal Lab., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 7600 Sand Point Way NE., 

 Seattle, WA 981 15. 



old female, the measurements, skulls, and skins were saved. 

 The systematic collecting of reference material was carried on 

 in later years until seals through age 10 had been represented. 

 The specimens and measurements proved to be of value later 

 in describing special features such as the pelage and dentition. 

 2) Further evidence was obtained that the "field length" of a 

 seal, while it may have been a useful index of age in 1915-16, 

 when the age-length relationship was calculated, was no longer 

 valid. Of known 3-yr-olds measured in 1944, 82% fell within 

 the standard range; of known 4-yr-olds, only 50%. Later, 

 Scheffer concluded that the average fur seal had diminished in 

 size over a 30-yr period as a result of population crowding 

 (Scheffer 1955). 3) Hookworms, Uncinaria lucasi, in seal pups 

 were recorded for the first time since 1912. Ten carcasses 

 selected at random from 127 found on the white sands below 

 Hutchinson Hill proved to be infested. The question loomed: 

 "Is this another symptom of a herd which has ceased to 

 grow?" 4) A peculiar nasal mite, Orthohalarachne attenuata 

 (Banks), had been described in 1910 from specimens found on 

 a fur seal pup. When Scheffer returned to St. Paul Island in 

 the summer of 1944, he noted that nasal mites were common in 

 seals of all ages. He collected specimens and forwarded them 

 to G. F. Ferris and Irwin M. Newell. In the meanwhile, Doet- 

 schman (1944) had described a new species, (Halarachne) O. 

 diminuata, from the California sea lion, Zalophus californi- 

 anus. Shortly thereafter, Newell (1947:256, 260) reported that 

 O. diminuata was present, along with O. attenuata, in the col- 

 lections made on St. Paul in 1944 and 1945. Kenneth A. 

 Neiland, of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, re- 

 ported (in letter of 25 January 1962) that he had found a young 

 fur seal suffocated by a heavy infestation of nasal mites. 5) In 

 the summers of 1944, 1945, and 1946, acanthocephalans 

 (thorny-headed worms) were collected from the intestines of 

 killing-ground seals. Some were sent to James E. Lynch, who 

 forwarded them to Harley J. Van Cleave, and some were sent 

 directly to Van Cleave. As a result, acanthocephalans were 

 recorded for the first time from the fur seal. Three species were 

 identified: Corynosoma semerme (Forssell) 1904, C. strumo- 

 sum (Rudolphi) 1802, and C. villosum Van Cleave 1953. For 

 details, see Van Cleave (1953a, b). 6) The testes of about 130 

 seals were collected, measured, and preserved as evidence of 

 the age when spermatogenesis first begins. The collection was 

 later lost, though measurements of these and other specimens 

 subsequently showed that the testes grow most rapidly in 

 weight in the third or fourth years, especially the fourth year 

 (Scheffer 1950e:389). 7) An inquiry addressed to the Pacific 

 Scientific Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanog- 

 raphy (TINRO), Vladivostok, U.S.S.R., in 1944 was answered 

 from Moscow the following spring. Seals with U.S. tags had, 

 indeed, been recovered on the Commander Islands (Taylor et al. 

 1955:63). While seals thought to have been branded or sheared 

 on the Pribilofs had been recovered from time to time on Asian 

 breeding grounds, here was clear proof of intermingling. 8) In 

 1944 a bachelor seal wearing a peculiar, soft, black-rubber col- 

 lar was captured on St. Paul Island (Scheffer 1950d:20). Up to 

 the end of 1948, 10 seals with similar collars were recovered, 

 and as late as 1965 Peterson (1965b: 18) wrote that "fur seals 

 continue to appear on the Pribilofs every year wearing black 

 rubber collars of unknown origin." The most plausible expla- 

 nation is that the collar is the rolled-sheet-remnant of a rubber 

 food bag manufactured in Japan. 9) Bulls were counted on 

 selected rookeries on St. Paul Island at 10-d intervals in May, 



29 



