Something new is happening in the cold waters of northern and western Alaska. Unusual injuries such as bite marks and flipper amputations are showing up on seals in the Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea regions. Ice-associated seals and Steller sea lions in particular appear to be in contact with a typically uncommon predator […]
The blue whale, which uses baleen to filter its prey from ocean water and can reach lengths of over 100 feet, is the largest vertebrate animal that has ever lived. On the list of the planet’s most massive living creatures, the blue whale shares the top ranks with most other species of baleen whales alive […]
When you forage for food, you need hunt no further than your corner restaurant. When a sea lion forages for food, it could exhaust its time and energy and leave its young to starve while searching the ocean with little chance of success—if it didn’t know where to look. NOAA Fisheries scientist Mike Sigler at […]
Fisheries researchers using Saildrones surveyed more than 1,700 miles within the fur seal foraging area of the Bering Sea this summer, measuring and locating walleye pollock that are the main food source for northern fur seals. The unmanned drones are giving the Alaska Fisheries Science Center new insight into foraging habits of female northern fur […]