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NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 68 



lation was reported at Amchitka Island by Lt. H. B. Hutchinson, 

 U.S.N., Commander, Aleutian Islands Survey Expedition, in a 

 memorandum of 21 June 1935. The investigation by Naval per- 

 sonnel at Amchitka was in response to a request by the U.S. 

 Department of the Interior. Hutchinson (1935) stated ''there are 

 more than one thousand (1,000) adult animals and half that num- 

 ber of pups on the waters surrounding the island." Possible poach- 

 ing of sea otters by the Japanese was suspected when a vessel 

 believed to be the Hakyuo Marii was observed attempting to enter 

 Constantine Harbor, Amchitka Island, on 24 June 1935 (Hutchin- 

 son, 1935). 



Also, unidentified men were seen on the island in August 1936 

 (Swicegood, 1936). Accordingly, buildings were erected on Am- 

 chitka by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in July 1937 (U.S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries, 1938). Sea otter wardens were stationed there 

 intermittently during parts of each year from 1937 through 1940. 



During World War II, specific observations of sea otters were 

 recorded by G. T. Joynt (1957) and Beals (1943). Beginning in 

 1949, many observations were obtained from Amchitka. Selected 

 population counts and estimates that were made are shown in 

 table 23. Other estimates not based on field counts are omitted. 



The tendency of a sea otter population to expand to new areas 

 primarily at the periphery of a dense population is illustrated by 

 observations from Amchitka. 



Lt. Cdr. S. P. Swicegood (1936), commanding officer of the 

 Chelan, conducted field counts of otters at Amchitka on 14-16 

 August 1936. Although 804 otters were counted along 24 miles of 

 the Pacific coast of the island, only 10 were seen on the Bering Sea 

 coast. A similar condition was observed in the summer of 1937 

 when C. L. Loy and 0. A. Friden (1937) counted 1,241 otters along 

 the Pacific coast of Amchitka and only 80 along the Bering Sea 

 coast. The aerial count by Beals (1943) when he recorded 2,198 

 otters along the Pacific coast and 1,219 along the Bering Sea coast 

 indicates that between 1937 and 1943 a movement of otters from 

 the Pacific to the Bering Sea coast of the island occurred, probably 

 because the large Pacific coast population caused food depletion 

 along that side of the island. 



A review of the field counts at Amchitka between 1936 and 

 1965, summarized in table 23, demonstrate that a dense population 

 existed on the south side of the island in 1936 (42 otters per square 

 mile) while a sparse one (3 otters per square mile) occupied the i 

 north side. Emigration was not rapid but it was appreciable by 

 the year 1939 (south side 40 otters per square mile, north side 14 



