Composite Training Unit Exercises and Joint Task ... - Govsupport.us

Appendix A Final COMPTUEX/JTFEX EA/OEANorthern elephant seal distribution in and near SOCAL Range Complex is given in Figure A-23. Fewwould be in the waters of the Range Complex except while moving between their haul-out sites andfeeding ranges.Northern Fur SealThe northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) is not listed under the ESA. The range of the northern fur sealextends from southern California north to the Bering Sea, and west to the Okhotsk Sea and the Sea ofJapan (Antonelis and Fiscus 1980). Two separate stocks of northern fur seals are recognized within U.S.waters: the Eastern Pacific Stock and the San Miguel Island Stock (Barlow et al. 1998). The San MiguelIsland Stock, which occurs north of the SOCAL Range Complex, is not considered depleted or strategicunder the MMPA. A minimum population estimate for the San Miguel Island Stock is 4,190 (Carretta etal. 2005).The Eastern Pacific Stock spends May–November in northern waters and at northern breeding colonies.In late November, females and young begin to arrive in offshore waters of California, with some animalsmoving south into continental shelf and slope waters. Maximum numbers are found in waters from 34ºNto 42ºN during February–April; most are found offshore of the continental slope. By early June, mostseals of the eastern Pacific stock have migrated back to northern waters (Antonelis and Fiscus 1980).Adult males from the Eastern Pacific Stock generally migrate only as far south as the Gulf of Alaska(Kajimura 1984). The Eastern Pacific stock of northern fur seal is classified as a strategic stock because itis designated as depleted under the MMPA. The minimum population estimate for the Eastern PacificStock is 751,714 (Angliss and Lodge 2004).Northern fur seals were made locally extinct at San Miguel Island during the mid-1800s by commercialsealing operations. After an absence of over 100 years, they recolonized the island during the late 1950sor early 1960s (DeLong 1982). The population at San Miguel Island has been increasing steadily since1972, except for a drop in numbers during the El Niño events of 1982 (Barlow et al. 1998) and 1997–1998 (Barlow et al. 1999). The 1997 live pup count was the highest since the colony was reported in1968, but up to 75% of those pups died within 5 months of birth. A 1998 pup count resulted in a totalcount of 627 pups, a 79.6% decrease from the 1997 count of 3,068 (Melin and DeLong 2000). In 1999,the population began to recover, and by 2002 the total pup count was 1,946 (Carretta et al. 2005).Although they feed primarily in deep offshore waters, average depths of dives of lactating females arerelatively shallow (223 ft [68 m]) with an average dive duration of 2.6 min (Reeves et al. 1992).During warm-water months, few northern fur seals are present at sea within the SOCAL Range Complex(Fig. 30), because most remain near and on San Miguel Island, where they haul out for breeding andpupping. During summer, adult males and most adult females feed in offshore waters, mostly north of theSOCAL Range Complex. Most juveniles and pups haul out on San Miguel Island to nurse (pups) or tomolt (juveniles). More northern fur seals have been sighted in the SOCAL Range Complex in the coldwaterperiod, and in both periods, sightings were all in the northeast corner of the range complex (Fig. A-24).February 2007 A-52