Coastal Resource Information System

Northern Fur Seal

Unlike other pinnipeds of British Columbia, the Northern Fur Seal is highly pelagic and usually comes ashore only during the breeding season. Studies of fur seals off California and Washington indicate that few individuals travel within 20-25 km from shore, and they prefer areas with shelves and banks that promote the upwelling of nutrients. Most individuals that are found in the study area during the spring and fall are likely migrants moving between winter feeding grounds off California and summer breeding grounds in the Bearing Sea. However, there is much variation in the timing of migration among sexes and age-classes. Use of the study area for non-migratory purposes is likely greatest by juveniles during the winter months. At sea, northern fur seals usually occur in groups of 1-3 individuals (Pike and MacAskie, 1969; Banfield, 1974; Fiscus,1986).

The Northern Fur Seal ranges from the Arctic Ocean to southern California in the winter, and Pribilof Islands in the central Bearing Sea and San Miguel Islands off California in the summer. They are not found in the Atlantic Ocean. Of all the Northern Fur Seals 75% breed and pup on the Pribilof Islands. Males arrive in late spring and stake out and defend a territory that a female will later seek out to give birth and nurse her pups. Females arrive about one month after the males and begin to form groups within the male territories that have been defined. They are one of the most oceangoing of the aquatic carnivores and only returns to land only during the breeding season.