abstract
This special publication contains the final report of an independent scientific and economic review of a Biological Opinion (BiOp) issued 24 November, 2010 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on the Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Management Area under a section 7 consultation required by the Endangered Species Act. The BiOp involved the western distinct population segment (WDPS) of Steller sea lions Eumetopias jubatus, the conclusion of which is a finding that fisheries in the western and central Aleutian Islands placed the WDPS in jeopardy of recovery through adverse modification of habitat. The review panel evaluated the scientific evidence and argument given in support of this finding against the scientific requirements of the Endangered Species Act based on consistency, validity, and biologic relevance. The review panel also evaluated the economic analyses that formed the basis for the reasonable and prudent actions arising from the finding. The review panel followed only the terms of reference as published in this final report, and in their deliberations, considered written testimony and testimony provided at two public meetings, one in Seattle on June 2, 2011, and the other in Anchorage on August 22, 2011. The conclusions of the review panel can be found in total in the executive summary and in part at the end of each chapter of the special publication.

abstract
The predictive relationship between heart rate (fH) and oxygen consumption (VO2) has been derived for several species of marine mammals swimming horizontally or diving in tanks to shallow depths. However, it is unclear how dive activity affects the fH:VO2 relationship and whether the existing equations apply to animals diving to deeper depths. We investigated these questions by simultaneously measuring the fH and VO2 of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) under different activity states (surface resting or diving), types of dives (single dives or dive bouts), and depths (10 or 40m). We examined the relationship over dives only and also over dive cycles (dive + surface interval). We found that fH could only predict VO2 over a complete single dive cycle or dive bout cycle (i.e. surface intervals had to be included). The predictive equation derived for sea lions resting on the surface did not differ from that for single dive cycles. However, the equation derived over dive bout cycles multiple dives + surface intervals) differed from those for single dive cycles or surface resting, with similar fH for multiple dive bout equations yielding higher predicted VO2 than that for single dive bout cycles (or resting). The fH:VO2 relationships were not significantly affected by dive duration, dive depth, water temperature or cumulative food consumed under the conditions tested. Ultimately, our results demonstrate that fH can be used to predict activity-specific metabolic rates of diving Steller sea lions, but only over complete dive cycles that include a post-dive surface recovery period.

abstract
Data on fine-scale animal movement are being collected worldwide, with the number of species being tagged and the resolution of data rapidly increasing. In this study, a general methodology is proposed to understand the patterns in these high-resolution movement time series that relate to marine animal behavior. The approach is illustrated with dive data from a northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) tagged on the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, USA. We apply a state-space model composed of a movement model and corresponding high-resolution vertical movement data. The central goal is to estimate parameters of this movement model, particularly their variation on appropriate time scales, thereby providing a direct link to behavior. A particle filter with state augmentation is used to jointly estimate the movement parameters and the state. A multiple iterated filter using overlapping data segments is implemented to match the parameter time scale with the behavioral inference. The time variation in the auto-covariance function facilitates identification of a movement model, allows separation of observation and process noise, and provides for validation of results. The analysis yields fitted parameters that show distinct time-evolving changes in fur seal behavior over time, matching well what is observed in the original data set.

abstract
Accurate estimates of food intake and its subsequent affect on growth are required to understand the interaction between an animals‚ physiology and its biotic environment. We determined how food intake and growth of 6 young northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus L., 1758) responded seasonally to changes in food availability. Animals were given unrestricted access to prey for 8 hr per day on either consecutive days or on alternate days only. We found animals offered ad libitum food on consecutive days substantially increased their food intake over normal Œtraining‚ levels. However, animals that fasted on alternative days were unable to compensate by further increasing their levels of consumption on subsequent feeding days. Absolute levels of food intake were highly consistent during winter and summer trials (2.7 ˆ 2.9 kg d-1), but seasonal differences in body mass meant that fur seals consumed more food relative to their body mass in summer (~27%) than in winter (~20%). Despite significant increases in absolute food intake during both seasons, the fur seals did not appear to efficiently convert this additional energy into mass growth, particularly in the winter. These seasonal differences in conversion efficiencies and estimates of maximum intake rates can be used to generate physiologically realistic predictions about the effect of changes in food availability on an individual fur as well as the consequences for an entire population.