The shifting baseline of northern fur seal ecology in the northeast Pacific Ocean.

ABSTRACT: Historical data provide a baseline against which to judge the significance of recent ecological shifts and guide conservation strategies, especially for species decimated by pre-20th century harvesting. Northern fur seals (NFS; Callorhinus ursinus) are a common pinniped species in archaeological sites from southern California to the Aleutian Islands, yet today they breed almost exclusively on offshore islands at high latitudes. Harvest profiles from archaeological sites contain many unweaned pups, confirming the presence of temperate-latitude breeding colonies in California, the Pacific Northwest, and the eastern Aleutian Islands. Isotopic results suggest that prehistoric NFS fed offshore across their entire range, that California populations were distinct from populations to the north, an

SUBMITTER: Newsome SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1887562 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature