Alaska Department of Fish and Game

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Ice Seal Biomonitoring in the Bering and Chukchi
Sea Region
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Lori
Quakenbush and Gay Sheffield
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OBJECTIVE Monitor health and status of all four
species
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Barrow
Chukchi Sea
ALASKA
RUSSIA
Nome
Bering Sea
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Samples/Information Collected

• Stomachs for diet analysis
• Liver, kidney, blubber, muscle for contaminants
• Skin for genetics
• Female reproductive tracts for productivity
• Physical measurements for body condition
• Teeth for aging
• Traditional knowledge by questionnaire

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Total number of seals sampled 1,102
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Total number of stomachs processed 512
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Total number of seals sampled for contaminants N
51
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Contaminants - OCs
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Contaminants - Metals
Data from Canada is ringed seals only and mean of
3 locations. Data from Alaska is the highest
mean of ringed, bearded, spotted or ribbon seals
from the 3 locations tested to date (Diomede,
Hooper Bay, and Pt. Hope).
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Stock structure
Preliminary analysis using mtDNA
Ringed - high diversity (N 58 63) Bearded -
high diversity (N 65 147) Ribbon - high
diversity (N 24 9) Spotted - high diversity
(N 35 (OCorry-Crowe and Westlake 1997)
No evidence of stock structure within the harvest
for bearded, ringed, spotted, and ribbon seals.
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Total number of reproductive tracts analyzed N
127
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Total number of seals sampled for body condition
N 757
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Gales and Renouf 1994, Parsons 1977
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This project contributes samples to other
projects including
University of Alaska Museum University of
Alaska Texas AM Alaska Marine Mammal Tissue
Archival Program
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Aknowledgements

• Ice Seal Biomonitoring Program has been funded
  by
• NMFS/NMML
• NOAA/NMFS
• National Science Foundation
• National Pacific Research Board
• This project would not be possible without the
  support of the hunters and their communities.
• We appreciate the support of the Ice Seal
  Committee.
• We work under NMFS Research Permit No. 358-1585.
• Dr. John Citta provided the power analyses.

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