Publications

North American populations of most goose species have remained stable or have increased in recent decades (USFWS and Canadian Wildlife Service 1986). Some populations, however, have declined or historically have had small numbers of individuals, and thus are of special concern. Individual populations of geese should be maintained to ensure that they provide aesthetic, recreational, and...

About 250 years ago sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were distributed continuously from central Baja California, north and west along the Pacific Rim to Machatka Peninsula in Russia, and south along the Kuril Island to northern Japan (Kenyon 1969; Fig. 1a). Several hundred thousand sea otters may have occurred in the north Pacific region when commercial hunting began in the 18th century...

The 1991-93 El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event first appeared in the northern Gulf of Alaska in autumn 1991 with warm sea-surface temperatures. In winter 1992, there were pulses of increased sea level and anomalous circulation. El Nino conditions persisted at least through summer 1993. The effects of this ENSO event on major groundfish species and Pacific herring in the northern...

The Ordovician sequences presented in this report were chosen to cover a range of depositional and structural settings found in northern Alaska. Consequently, the quality of lithostratigraphic, paleontologic, and sedimentologic data is variable. Until 1982, Ordovician rocks in northern Alaska were known only from a few, widely separated localities. Since then, several hundred Ordovician...

Information on the size, distribution, and productivity of the California sea otter population is broadly relevant to two federally mandated goals: removing the population’s listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and obtaining an “optimal sustainable population” under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Except for the population in central California, sea otters...

As part of an ongoing, multi-agency study to determine the effects of closure of the commercial fishery for Dungeness crabs, Cancer magister, on crab population structure we examined patterns of distribution and abundance of crabs in nearshore habitats at five locations in and near Glacier Bay National Park. Sampling was conducted in April and September 1992 and April 1993 prior to the...

Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) have recently experienced widespread population declines and frequent colony failures throughout the North Pacific. At Glacier Bay National Park, the Margerie Glacier colony was censused visually in 1991 through 1993. In 1993 a new photographic census technique was also tested to assess its feasibility, accuracy, and ease of use, Three years of...

No abstract available.

Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, 347 oiled sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were treated in rehabilitation centers. Of these, 116 died, 94 within 10 days of presentation. Clinical records of 21 otters dying during the first 10 days of rehabilitation were reviewed to define the laboratory abnormalities and clinical syndromes associated with these unexpected deaths. The most common...

Emperor Geese (Chen canagica) breed primarily on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska (Eisenhauer and Kirkpatrick 1977), but a small, poorly quantified proportion of the world's population is known to breed in the Russia Far East (Kistchinski 1976, 1988, Portenko 1981). Eisenhauer and Kirkpatrick (1977) stated that 80 to 90% of all Emperor Geese breed on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska...

We examined gut contents of 1799 seabirds comprising 24 species collected in 1988-1990 to assess the types and quantities of plastic particles ingested by seabirds in the subarctic waters of Alaska. Of the 15 species found to ingest plastic, most were surface-feeders (shearwaters, petrels, gulls) or plankton-feeding divers (auklets, puffins). Of 4417 plastic particles examined, 76% were...

Coho salmon from 10 Washington populations were incubated under controlled conditions to determine the levels of variation in time to hatch among populations and families within populations. The average incubation rate was somewhat slower than that estimated from a quantitative model derived from British Columbia populations, and was slightly faster than that predicted by a Washington...