Review of Marine Mammal Population and Prey Information for Bering Sea Ecosystem Studies

摘要

Twenty-eight marine mammal species are found in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands area, although only 21 species (8 pinnipeds, 12 cetaceans, and 1 mustelid) are present often enough and in adequate numbers to contribute significantly to the Bering Sea ecosystem. The quantity and quality of data available on distribution, abundance, and biomass vary widely among the species in the Bering Sea. In order to estimate the biomass of total food consumption by marine mammals of the eastern Bering Sea, it is necessary to estimate total abundance, average body mass, diet composition, and energy value of the diet of each resident marine mammal species. The paper summarizes the data in the literature through 1987 to obtain average annual values of these estimates for each marine mammal species for use in ecosystem studies assessing marine mammal impacts on their prey resources in the Bering Sea.