1969 Alaska Fur Seal Investigations

June 28, 1969

In 1969 the Pribilof Islands fur seal population began its climb to a new level. Females will not again be killed intentionally until about 450,000 pups are born annually. We are not able to predict how many years will be required for this level of pup production to be reached. With average survival, perhaps 5 years will be needed to accumulate a total of more than 700,000 females 3 years old or older needed to produce 450,000 young. Exceptional survival such as that experienced by the year classes of 1952 and 1958 or poor survival like that of the year class of 1956 will substantially change the time required to bring the number of females to the desired level.