SEAL ISLAND 
Third, on the aouth reef with vegetalont, Seel is a fairly 
long, narrow island with a variety of habitats. The east end is 
primarily a large, exposed lava ledge like the southern section of South¬ 
east Island, with source sand beach on i^s northern side. The area is 
• ■ ' jk ■ ' 1 ' —- * 
used by roosting frigates and brown boobies, through no nest of either 
species were found out here. The western end is perhaps 10-12 feet above 
sea level, with fairly steep, but wide beches. The top of the 
island is vegetated. There is a wide assnd and coral rock beach on the 
northwest and west sides, and several coral ledges protrude along the 
water's edge on the south be^ch. 
Both Laysen pnd black-foots were nesting here with somewhat greater 
number of the latter. Masked boobies were nesting on the beach and 
brown boobies were seen on the rock ledges to the east, but no nests 
were found. Frigates were nesting in the vegetation. Both sooty and 
Bonin petrels are apparently nesting here now. We saw some sooty terns over 
the island. Two curlews were noted on the veget ted end, and there were 
turnstones and a few ssnderlings on the beaches. 
A total of 19 seals were counted on this island, only 2 new ones 
were tagged, and 3 returns were noted, but only 2 of the tags were read 
before the seals went into the water. One large adult 9 was observed 
which may have been pregnant. Nos. 137 and 113 were noted on the 
south beach. The other tagged animal want off the north beach. The 
new animals ares Time If45" - 1525 
'4 
#163 young, ad. pelage 9 south beach on the vegetated half 
-164 yearling 9 north beach on the vegetated ,alf 
On the trip down, shortly before we landed on Grass Island, we 
