The population status of northern fur seals Callorhinus ursinus ) on st. Paul Island has been monitored annually since 1911. Annual reports of research on the population status of northern fur seals on all U. s. breeding rookeries (including st. Paul Island) and throughout their pelagic North Pacific and Bering Sea range (Fig. 1) have been published since 1940 excluding, a 3-year break during World War II. This series of publications, first produced by the Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory (later to become the National Marine Mammal Laboratory) represents one of the longest-running documentations of life history patterns and dynamics of a wild animal population. From 1911 to 1984, northern fur seal research was carried out by Canada, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States under a convention for the conservation of North Pacific fur seals. Since 1984, studies have been conducted independently, but cooperatively by former member nations.