MASS ESTIMATES USING BODY MORPHOLOGY IN STELLER SEA LIONS

Analytical procedures developed from studies on phocids for relating body morphometrics (length and girth) to mass were applied to 390 Steller sea lions from the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. The equations relating body volume to mass were significant and had very high correlation coefficients for animals from about 60 to over 900 kg with a standard error of +/-0.6% in fitted mass. There was a significant difference in these relationships for female sea lions studied in the 1970s and those examined in the 1980s. The latter sea lions were smaller and/or leaner than those collected in the 1970s.