1 37 Fur seals on St Paul Island Every year hundreds of thou
Last updated: 9/2/2023
1 37 Fur seals on St Paul Island Every year hundreds of thou sands of northern fur seals return to their haul outs in the Pribilof Islands in Alaska to breed give birth and teach their pups to swim hunt and survive in the Bering Sea U S commercial fur sealing operations continued on St Paul until 1984 but despite a reduction in harvest the population of fur seals has continued to decline Possible reasons include climate shifts in the North Pacific chang es in the availability of prey and new or increased interac tion with commercial fisheries that increase mortality Here are data on the estimated number of fur seal pups born on St Paul Island in thousands from 1979 to 2014 where a dash indicates a year in which no data were collected 28 FURSEALS Pups Born thousands Year 245 93 1988 203 82 1989 179 44 1990 203 58 1991 165 94 1992 173 27 1993 182 26 1994 167 66 1995 171 61 1996 Pups Born thousands 202 23 171 53 201 30 182 44 192 10 170 12 Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Pups Born thousands 179 15 158 74 145 72 122 82 Year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Pups B thousa 109 102 94 96 91