Radio Tracking Device and Branding on Sea Lions.

TRACKING DEVICES ON SEA LIONS

We often encounter marine mammals in the reserve which have been marked when trapped in another location as part of a scientific study. We are including in this file a set of pictures of marine mammals which have been tagged in various studies, along with the particulars of the observations.

	These photos were taken by my partner Mark Malleson at Race Rocks on the afternoon of February 8th, 2005." (...Rhonda Reidy of Archipelago Marine in Victoria) You can see radio transmitter antenna packages attached to the head of one animal and another package attached to perhaps a flipper of another animal.

	This set of photos show another form of human-iinteraction with sea lions: fishing flashers and neck rings.

BRANDING OF SEA LIONS:

Pam Birley of Leicestershire England, sent this communication about her quest to find out about one of the brands she had observed from the remote camera 5 on a sea lion at Race Rocks in November 2005.. her picture is shown here:

"I am trying to find out where California sea lion No.935 was branded - have written to NMML on their information request. Will let you know if I hear anything. Learned a lot by searching though...brands can be hot brands or cold (hydrogen) - that was new to me - don't like the idea of either really but I can see it helps research. The reply came back from Pat Gearin. Actually we still don't know where the sea lion came from originally before they tagged it. This whole thing sparked my curiosity when somebody posted a picture of a sea lion in Alaska with a big x(number) mark on its rear and I discovered that the Alaskan sea lions are branded with different prefixes for different areas, the 'x' mark being for Sugarloaf Island and that led me to try and find out where #935 came from."

Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 13:15:01 -0800
From: "Pat Gearin" <Pat.Gearin(use the at sign here) noaa.gov>

Subject: Information on branded sea lion # 935

Hello Pam, the sea lion with brand # 935 was captured and tagged at Shilshole Bay near Seattle, Washington on June 4, 2004. This animal is one of about 1,000 sea lions captured in Washington from 1995-2005 as part of studies by our laboratory to learn more about these California sea lion males. Studies on disease, distribution and movements, food habits and fisheries interactions have been conducted. This particular animal weighed 300 kg and was 227 cm long when captured. This is the first resight of this animal since he was released. Thanks for your interest and for the sighting record. Pat Gearin.

See this paper on branding Northern Sea Lions.

	We often see sealions in the reserve with brands, probably by hair clipping (#16) . In this video several sea lions with brands were hauled out near the docks in October 2002.
	A photo taken underwater of a Northern sea lion with brand (#12)?.. Nov 12, 2005..
		See letter above which started us on the process of assembling this tracking file.
# 935 was captured and tagged at Shilshole Bay near Seattle, Washington on June 4, 2004.	Picture taken by PB Nov.2005

#805: Pictures taken Apr 23, 2006 Race Rocks Docks, ( PB photos) ... Hello Pam, thanks for the resight information and attached photos.	April, 2006. This animal is number 805, first captured and branded at Shilshole Bay on October 25, 2001. At that time he weighed 693 pounds and was 243 cm long.	He was later recaptured at Shilshole Bay on 7 May 2003 and weighed 850 pounds and was 250 cm long. He's considered a "jumbo" sea lion and is obviously a large adult who may be 15 plus years old by now.	His only other resight was on September 15, 2003 in Northern California. (Response from P.Gearin.NOAA)
# 101 observed May 7, 2007 by PC students.
# 658 May 29, 2006 (GF photo)
#632: Observed June 7, 2006. This sealion was captured on 10/22/99 at Shilshole Bay in Seattle. At that time he weighed 636 pounds and was 230 cm long. At that time he was probably 12 plus years old so he's an older sea lion now for sure.	His only previous resight was at San Miguel Island, California in 2000. From e-mail of 13 June 2006 to PB from Pat Gearin of NOAA. (PB photos)
#822 Observed Aug 15, 2007, also on Aug 30, 2007. Photos by Roth Wehrell, UVic.
#822 Observed Aug 28, 2006, PB photo.	This animal was originally captured at Seattle on 19 April 2002 and weighed 400 pounds and was 211 cm long.	The only other resight we have for this sea lion so far is from Cascade Head in central Oregon in August of 2004... P.Gearin
#822 Observed in the same pose! Oct19, 2007 (PBPhoto)	Quite an amazing coincidence to get the same sea lion back a year later, doing the same manouever on the jetty railing. Thanks to PB for this unique set of photos.	The aluminum box on the right was added in the past year to house a control box for a fibre optic installation to the turbine.
#683 observed Sept 12, 2007 photo by PB.	This sea lion with brand 683 was first captured in Seattle in April of 2000 and weighed 319 pounds and was 184cm long. He has only been seen since a few times at Everett. (PG)
#2508, and #C722 observed Sept 16, 2007 by Chris Blondeau.	The animal # 2508 was marked as a pup at San Miguel Island, California in September of 1993 so he's 14 years old now.	The animal with the "C" brand was recently marked at Astoria, Oregon, probably within the last 6 weeks. The marking at Astoria is being conducted by the	Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife with Matt Tennis leading that program. All "C" brands are from animals captured in the Columbia River area.
#740: tag Deceased November 9, 2007 by Mike Slater: Location: North side Great Race Rock. (Peg#15 visible)

On November 12, 2007, this storm from the northeast commended # 740 to the depths.

This dead sea lion (brand 740) was first captured in January of 2001 in Seattle and he weighed 520 pounds and was 230 cm long. He was recaptured again in May of 2001 and weighed 630 pounds then. Based on his size at the first capture, he was probably a fairly old male when he died, probably 15-18 years old. He had been resighted 7 times since his first capture at Cascade Head in Oregon, off Everett Washington and most recently in 2005 at Wouwer Island in Barkley Sound BC by Brian Gisborne.
( Nov 2007..Pat Gearin NOAA)

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