Pinniped Monitoring for the San Francisco Bay Area Network

Codde, Sarah; Sherrill, Kirk

This project contains products resulting from pinnipeds monitoring at National Park Service, San Francisco Bay Area Network Parks. Within the order Carnivora, the Pinnipedia sub-order is a group of marine mammals that includes sea lions, fur seals, true seals, and walruses. Pinnipeds are keystone species who serve as excellent indicators of marine ecosystem health because they respond quickly to changing oceanic conditions. Conservation concerns include effects of climate change, human disturbance, oil spills, fishing activities (operational and biological), natural and anthropogenically enhanced toxic algal blooms, preservation of haul out habitats, biomagnified contaminants, and disease. Monitoring focuses on the two numerically dominant pinniped species that breed, haul out, and molt in San Francisco Bay Area Network (SFAN) parks: the Pacific Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina richardii) and Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris). This information contributes significantly to the regional and stock-wide understanding of these species required under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Ancillary data on other pinniped species are collected concurrently, but are not the primary targets of this monitoring protocol. Monitoring is performed annually at two SFAN parks: Point Reyes National Seashore (PORE) and Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GOGA). Objectives are to 1) determine the long-term trends in population size and seasonal distribution of seal populations at primary sites in the SFAN parks during the breeding and molt seasons, 2) determine long-term trends in reproductive success of seals through annual estimates of pup production at PORE and GOGA, and 3) determine the long-term trends in sources, frequency, and level of effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on seal haul out use and productivity.

Pinniped Monitoring for the San Francisco Bay Area Network

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