2004-2005 Alaska Fur Seal Investigations

July 01, 2005

The northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) population in the Pribilof Islands Archipelago (on St. Paul and St. George Islands, Figs. 1-3) constitutes approximately 55% of the world population. Smaller breeding colonies are located on the Kuril and the Commander Islands in Russia, Bogoslof Island (Fig. 4) in the southeastern Bering Sea, and San Miguel Island (Fig. 5) off California. The rookeries at San Miguel and Bogoslof Islands probably originated in the late 1950s (DeLong 1982) and 1980 (R.R. Ream, pers. comm.), respectively.