Scientists studying the decline of northern fur seals in Pribilof Islands
ANCHORAGE - Marine researchers are trying to learn why northern fur seals are declining in the Pribilof Islands and increasing on a tiny volcanic island north of Unalaska that didn't exist in its present form a century ago.
In a study planned to begin in November, scientists will compare seals gathering on Bogoslof Island, where numbers of fur seals are growing, and St. Paul Island, one of the Pribilofs.
Hundreds of thousands of northern fur seals converge on Pribilof Islands rookeries each summer. Commercial harvest there drove Alaska's early history and led to the founding of the Aleut Native communities of St. Paul and St. George.
For reasons scientists and Native observers can't explain, the number of fur seals returning to Pribilof beaches has been dropping. This year's counts, still being calculated, appear to be down again.
"People are very, very concerned," said lifelong Pribilof resident Aquilina Lestenkof, co-director of the ecosystem conservation office for the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government. "Everybody is feeling the effects of the decline."