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S F O S. School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Insights into the foraging behavior of Steller sea lions using an animal-borne video and data recorder. Paul Olivier – Texas A&M University Russ Andrews – Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks and the Alaska Sealife Center - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Insights into the foraging behavior of Steller sea lions using an animal-borne video and data
recorder
Paul Olivier – Texas A&M UniversityRuss Andrews – Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks and the Alaska Sealife Center
Don Calkins – North Pacific Wildlife Consulting, LLC
Vladimir Burkanov – National Marine Mammal Laboratory, NMFS, NOAA
Randall Davis – Texas A&M University at Galveston
S F O SSchool of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
Project Description
• Objective– Describe the foraging strategies
of lactating SSL
• Location– Kuril Islands, Russia– SSL/NFS Rookery on
Lovushki Island– June 20-23, 2008
• Test Subject Selection– Lactating Female– Healthy, Large Pup
InstrumentationVideo Data Recorder (VDR)
• Equipment in deployed VDRs– Head Mount
• B&W CCD camera with near-infrared LEDs• GPS
– Backpack• Digital video recorder and Flash memory for
data• Pressure sensor (depth)
• Other sensors– Thermistor– Conductivity sensor– Illuminance sensor– Water (swim) speed– 3-axis accelerometer (pitch, roll,
yaw)– 3-axis magnetometer
Atka MackerelPleurogrammus monopterygius
• Display diurnal vertical migration1
– Active vertical movement away from “settling depth” (near 100 m) during daylight hours
– Returned to “settling depth” in late afternoon
• Vertical migration may increase susceptibility to SSL predation during daylight hours1
1Nichol and Somerton, 2002; Mar Ecol Prog Ser 239: 193–207
Estimated Foraging Success(from approximately 7.5 hours of video data)
Consumption rate for SSL 2– Combination of darkness, speed and camera placement made it
difficult to identify which of the fish “encountered” were consumed and which escaped out the bottom of the video frame.
Captures Time (min) No. Dives Captures / DiveCaptures /
min
SSL 1 7 105 24 0.29 0.07
SSL 2 49 250 12 4.08 0.20
SSL 5 10 86 12 0.83 0.12
Conclusion:• SSL exploit Atka mackerel behavior• Prey detection appears primarily by
vision• Vibrissae may be used with vision in
low light conditions
Acknowledgements
Bill Hagey, Sarah Norberg,Petr Permyakov
Oksana Savenko, John Skinner, Tatiana Shulezhko
Boris Solovyev, Andrey Tretiyakov, Jason Waite
The captain and crew of the R/V Georg Steller
FundingNOAA grant to the Alaska Sealife Center Pinniped Program
Texas A&M University
National Science Foundation
National Marine Fisheries Service
National Undersea Research Program