Abstract
A bstract We evaluated various measurements of mass, morphology, and blubber thickness as indices of fatness for Steller sea lions by correlation with the percentage of total body mass comprised by the sculp (%SCULP). We concluded LMD‐index was the best index evaluated because it had a relatively high r 2 (0.58), had a linear relationship with %SCULP, and the intercept term was not different from O. We suggest the development of a LMD‐index for otariids would likely reduce the unexplained variation in the index. We developed a multiple regression model ( r 2 = 0.745, P