Steller sea lion ( Eumetopias jubatus ) young‐of‐the‐year ( YOY ) are nutritionally dependent upon their dam through the majority of their first year. Several indices of body condition were measured in YOY 1.5–9 mo of age captured in Southeast Alaska ( n = 122), the Gulf of Alaska ( n = 182), and the Aleutian Islands ( n = 38) to test the hypothesis that nutritional stress impacted the ability of adult female Steller sea lions...

Steller sea lions ( SSL ; Eumetopias jubatus ) grow their vibrissae continually, providing a multiyear record suitable for ecological and physiological studies based on stable isotopes. An accurate age‐specific vibrissae growth rate is essential for registering a chronology along the length of the record, and for interpreting the timing of ecologically important events. We utilized four methods to estimate the growth rate of v...

Studies of health, survival, and development of juvenile Alaskan Steller sea lions ( Eumetopias jubatus , SSL) require accurate estimates of age for wild‐captured animals. However, the value and accuracy of several potential predictors of age have not been assessed with data from known‐age free‐ranging animals. During 2001–2005, forty‐six individual SSL originally branded or tagged at ≤6 mo of age were recaptured by the Alaska...

A bstract Population declines of Steller sea lions ( Eumetopias juhatus ) in western Alaska (west of 144°W) may be a result of reduced juvenile survival. We used satellite telemetry to study the at‐sea distribution and movement patterns of pup (1.6–11.9 mo) and juvenile (12.0–35.1 mo) Steller sea lions. We studied trip distance, duration, and interhaul‐out movements of sea lions in relation to age, sex, and month of year in th...

A bstract We estimated trends in abundance of harbor seals ( Phoca vitulina richardsii ) using over dispersed, multinomial models and counts obtained during aerial surveys conducted during 1983–2001 in the Ketchikan, Sitka, Kodiak, and Bristol Bay areas of Alaska. Harbor seal numbers increased significantly at 7.4%/yr during 1983–1998 and 5.6%/yr during 1994–1998 in the Ketchikan area, and 6.6%/yr during 1993–2001 in the Kodia...

A bstract Over the past 24 yr, 8,596 Steller sea lion ( Eumetopias jubatus ) pups were branded on their natal rookeries throughout Alaska with the objectives of determining survival rates, recruitment, movements, and site fidelity. Our objectives here were to examine the extent of dispersal of Steller sea lions away from their natal rookeries, movements between stocks, and degree of natal rookery fidelity. Pups (

A bstract Estimates of Steller sea lion ( Eumetopias jubatus ) pup production are valuable for estimating population trend and size. Currently in Alaska, pups are counted by visiting rookeries, driving older animals into the water, then walking through the rookeries and counting the pups, a highly disruptive procedure. At smaller rookeries, with good vantage points, pups are occasionally counted from the periphery of rookeries...

A bstract Nutritional stress is a leading hypothesis behind the decline in numbers of Steller sea lions in the Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and the Bering Sea. To evaluate this hypothesis we compared body growth of female Steller sea lions 1.0–13.9 yr of age collected in the Gulf of Alaska during two time periods, 1975–1978 just prior to or early in the decline and 1985–1986 when the decline was well established. We f...