1. Alaska Department of Fish and Game Lori Quakenbush and Gay Sheffield Ice Seal Biomonitoring in the Bering and Chukchi Sea Region

2. OBJECTIVE: Monitor health and status of all four species

8. Chukchi Sea Bering Sea ALASKA RUSSIA Nome Barrow

9. Samples/Information Collected Stomachs for diet analysis Liver, kidney, blubber, muscle for contaminants Skin for genetics Female reproductive tracts for productivity Physical measurements for body condition Teeth for aging Traditional knowledge by questionnaire

10. Total number of seals sampled = 1,102

11. Total number of stomachs processed = 512

12. Total number of seals sampled for contaminants N = 51

13. Contaminants - OCs

14. Contaminants - Metals Data from Canada is ringed seals only and mean of 3 locations. Data from Alaska is the highest mean of ringed, bearded, spotted or ribbon seals from the 3 locations tested to date (Diomede, Hooper Bay, and Pt. Hope).

15. Stock structure Ringed - high diversity (N = 58 + 63) Bearded - high diversity (N = 65 + 147) Ribbon - high diversity (N = 24 + 9) Spotted - high diversity (N = 35; (O’Corry-Crowe and Westlake 1997) Preliminary analysis using mtDNA: No evidence of stock structure within the harvest for bearded, ringed, spotted, and ribbon seals.

16. Total number of reproductive tracts analyzed N = 127

17. Total number of seals sampled for body condition N = 757

18. Gales and Renouf 1994, Parsons 1977

21. This project contributes samples to other projects including: University of Alaska Museum University of Alaska Texas A&M Alaska Marine Mammal Tissue Archival Program

23. Aknowledgements Ice Seal Biomonitoring Program has been funded by: NMFS/NMML NOAA/NMFS National Science Foundation National Pacific Research Board This project would not be possible without the support of the hunters and their communities. We appreciate the support of the Ice Seal Committee. We work under NMFS Research Permit No. 358-1585. Dr. John Citta provided the power analyses.