Northern Fur Seal Pup Capture and Satellite-Telemetered Migratory Departure Data, Pribilof Islands, and Bogoslof Island, Alaska (USA), 1996-1997, 2005-2006, and 2015

This dataset provides information about 172 northern fur seal pups in the Bering Sea that were captured and instrumented with satellite tags transmitting position information, in order to study their migration during autumn and winter of their first year of life. These data were collected by researchers affiliated with the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center Marine Mammal Laboratory in 1996-1997, 2005-2006, and 2015. The data consist of basic information about the pups, the location and time at which they were captured, and the estimated date and time at which they departed on their first migration. This departure time is based on the first recorded at-sea position and an assumed swimming speed as described in Pelland et al. (2024) (doi:10.1139/cjz-2023-0212). Each row of the dataset corresponds to one pup. Columns for each pup include:
identification number (ID);
year;
sex;
mass at capture in kg (MASS_AT_CAPTURE_KG);
the island and rookery at which the pup was captured;
the orientation of the offshore direction at the capture location in degrees East of North (SITE_BEARING_DEG_E_of_N);
the date/time of capture (CAP DATE UTC);
the estimated date/time of departure (EST DEPART DATE UTC); and
the latitude and longitude at which the pup was captured.
These data are used in analyses of Pelland et al. 2024 (doi:10.1139/cjz-2023-0212). Capture and instrumentation methodology, and other information recorded from these pups, are described in Baker (2007), Lea et al. (2009, 2010), and Zeppelin et al. (2019).
All work was conducted in accordance with and under the authority of the United States Marine Mammal Protection Act (National Marine Fisheries Service, NMFS Permits 782-1708 and 14327-01). At the time of the 1996, 1997, 2005, and 2006 pup tag deployments there was not an additional requirement for review of those procedures by an ethics committee. In 2010, a NMFS Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee was established for the Alaska Fisheries and Northwest Fisheries science centers and all experimental protocols utilized in pup tagging in this study were reviewed and approved by this committee.