Incidental Catch of a Ribbon Seal (Phoca fasciata) in the Central North Pacific

• Published in: ARCTIC
• Main Authors: Stewart, Brent S., Everett, William T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1983
• Subjects: Animal distribution; Seals (Animals); North Pacific Ocean; Pacific; Arctic; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65345

On 30 June 1981 a juvenile male ribbon seal . was incidentally caught in the central North Pacific . by the Japanese salmon fishing vessel Hokucho Maru No. 2. . Before the crew cast the seal overboard, one of us (WTE) was able to photograph it . recover its baculum and measure standard length (Scheffer, 1967) and blubber thickness. . To our knowledge, the record we report here is only the fifth pelagic record of a ribbon seal and the first pelagic sighting south of the Aleutian Islands in the central North Pacific.