Alaskan Fur Seals - Earthwatch Institute

local environment including threats, politics (local, national and international), what is being accomplished, and
what threats need to be addressed. This (hopefully) is communicated to a much wider audience than would
otherwise be possible. Furthermore, it is communicated via direct experience not indirectly through the various
media (e.g. television) to which people are largely habituated. In the other direction, both locals and scientists
can often learn a great deal from volunteers given the wide range of experiences they bring with them. In this
respect, Earthwatch casts a rather large net and the result is likely to increase the sort of experiences that
volunteers might bring with them. Overall, field research is one of the best ways to bring people together from
diverse backgrounds. Facilitating communication among diverse peoples can only have positive results. Clearly,
this is one of the central pillars of the Earthwatch Program and is why we believe it will be successful with our
field research activities.
Collaborating Organizations
The primary collaborating institutions include the St. George Island Tribal Government through their Island
Sentinel Program and the St. George Island Institute.
The Island Sentinel Program has expressed a positive willingness to have Earthwatch volunteers directly
participate in their monitoring activities, should time and weather allow. These include vegetation plot analysis
which monitors reindeer impact on the tundra and area usage of endangered Steller sea lions. Please refer to
Section 2, Objective 4 above.
The St. George Institute is a locally-based nonprofit organization founded and operated by the St. George
Traditional Council and Karin Holser, one of the Earthwatch Scientists on this project. The organization exists to
facilitate the gathering and dissemination of local ecological knowledge and will organize the Earthwatch
volunteers at the local level.
Dissemination of Results
We plan to publish our findings in the peer-reviewed scientific literature in journals such as Mammalogy, Journal
Zoology London, Marine Mammal Science, and the Canadian Journal of Zoology or Marine Ecology Progress Series. We
publish preliminary findings and short notes in the National Marine Fisheries Service Technical Journal Fur Seal
Investigations. In addition, professional presentations (spoken and poster formats) are regularly given at scientific
meetings such as the Biennial Marine Mammal Conference and the annual Alaska Marine Science Symposium.
Public and academic presentations are also regularly given by Dr. Insley.
LITERATURE CITED
Baba, N., Kiyota, and K. Yoshida. 1991. Relationship between whisker color and age of northern fur seals
(Callorhinus ursinus) collected in the western North Pacific and Okhotsk Sea. Document submitted to the
Annual Meeting of the International North Pacific Fisheries Commission, Tokyo, Japan, October, 1991.
National Research Institute of Far Seas Fisheries, Shimizu, 7 p.
Boyd, P.W. and Doney, S.C. 2002. Modeling regional responses by marine pelagic ecosystems to global climate
change. Geophysical Research Letters 29(16):1806.
Boyd, I.L. and Murray, A.W.A. 2001. Monitoring a marine ecosystem using responses of upper trophic level
predators. Journal of Animal Ecology 70: 747-760.
Craig, Allison M. Reproduction in the female fur seal Callorhinus ursinus (Linn.). M.S., University of British
Columbia, 1966. 116p.
Daniel, L. 2002. Draft Pribilof Islands Site Conservation Plan. World Wildlife Fund Bering Sea Ecoregion Program.
Anchorage, Alaska.
DeMaster, D.P., Trites, A.W., Clapham, P., Mizroch, S., Wade, P., Small, R.J. and Ver Hoef, J. 2006. The sequential
megafaunal collapse hypothesis: Testing with existing data. Progress in Oceanography 68: 329–342.
Gentry, R.L. 1998. Behavior and ecology of the northern fur seal. Princeton Univ. Press, New Jersey. 392 p.
Goodman, D., M. Mangel, G. Parkes, T. Quinn, V. Restrepo, T. Smith and K. Stokes. 2002. Scientific review of the
harvest strategy currently used in the BSAI and GOA groundfish fishery management plans. North Pacific
Fishery Management Council, 605 West 4th Ave., Suite 306, Anchorage, AK 99501.
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