Harbor seal numbers and population trajectories differ by location in central California. Within San Francisco Bay ( SFB ) counts have been relatively stable since the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, but in coastal areas like Tomales Bay ( TB ), counts increased before stabilizing in the 1990s. Emigration, poor survival, and environmental effects have been hypothesized as contributors to differences between trajectories; ho...

Harbor seal ( Phoca vitulina ) haul‐out site use may be affected by natural or anthropogenic factors. Here, we use an 11‐yr (1997–2007) study of a seal colony located near a mariculture operation in Drakes Estero, California, to test for natural (El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO), density‐dependence, long‐term trends) and anthropogenic (disturbance or displacement related to oyster production activities) factors that may inf...

Coastal marine ecosystems worldwide have undergone such profound transformations from overfishing that trophic interactions observed today might be artifacts of these changes. We determined whether the trophic level of an endangered seabird, the Marbled Murrelet ( Brachyramphus marmoratus ), has declined over the past 100 years after the collapse of Pacific sardine ( Sardinops sadax ) fisheries in the late 1940s and the recent...