Tag Archives: Kodiak Island wildlife

In Conclusion

June 20, 2021Bald Eagle, Birds, Fin Whale, Gray Whale, Harbor Seal, Humpback Whale, killer whale, Kodiak Bear, Kodiak Wildlife, Mountain Goat, Orca, Porpoise, Red Fox, River Otter, Sea Otter, Sitka black-tailed deer, Steller Sea Lion, WeaselBald Eagle, Conclusions, Kodiak Bear, Kodiak Island, Kodiak Island wildlife, Robin Barefield, whales, Writingadmin

When I reach the end of a manuscript, I dread writing the conclusion because a conclusion requires a great deal of thought and effort. Just as we were nearly done polishing my non-fiction book, Kodiak Island Wildlife, the editor said he believed the book needed a conclusion, and I groaned, but I also agreed with him.

I don’t know how long I stared at a blank computer screen, but I could think of nothing to write. How do you sum up a book about wildlife? Then, as I stood on our boat one morning, watching giant fin whales with our guests, the conclusion for my book popped into my mind, fully formed. When I read it to my husband, tears came to my eyes, and I knew I had done my best work. My editor agreed, and he said it was the perfect ending. The following is the conclusion for my recently released book, Kodiak Island Wildlife.

Emerald cliffs plunge into the gray ocean, and only a slight breeze stirs the surface of the water. In front of our boat, three huge fin whales feed, frequently surfacing to breathe. Their exhalations sound like cannon shots, and our guests capture every moment with their cameras. A sea otter bobs placidly a short distance from our boat, and a bald eagle circles overhead. I have seen all of this many times, but still, it takes my breath away, and a chuckle escapes my lips. How have I managed to live my life in one of the most beautiful places on the planet? To me, Kodiak is paradise. Sure, the weather here throws frequent tantrums, and mistakes in the hostile wilderness do not go unpunished, but I have found nowhere else I would rather live.

One of my greatest joys is to guide visitors into the Kodiak wilderness. I love the look on a newcomer’s face the first time she sees a Kodiak bear or watches a sea otter eat a crab. I wrote this book to honor the wild animals we’ve watched over the years and to thank the many folks who have visited our lodge. I know they would tell you that Kodiak is a special place. The island is mysterious and magical.

It is a short conclusion, but it sums up how I feel and accurately describes my motivations for writing the book. I am grateful for the many experiences I’ve enjoyed. My life is an adventure filled with wonder in the Kodiak wilderness, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

Speaking of wildlife, I hope to return to regular and more frequent posts soon. The past two months have been hectic. I’m writing this while I sit on our boat. We are cruising 100 miles around Kodiak Island from our lodge to the town of Kodiak, where we will have our boat lifted out of the water so that we can clean and paint the bottom. As soon as we return home, we have endless jobs awaiting us before our summer season begins. Meanwhile, I am trying to promote my new book and keep up with my scheduled newsletters and podcasts. I realize I’ve let my blog posts fall through the cracks, and I vow to make my posts more of a priority in the future. Thank you for your patience.

Kodiak Island Wildlife is now Available

Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. Sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true crime and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

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Book Release: Kodiak Island Wildlife

May 19, 2021UncategorizedAlaska Brown Bears, Alaska wildlife, Bald Eagles, Kodiak Bears, Kodiak Island wildlifeadmin

I am thrilled to announce the release of my non-fiction book, Kodiak Island Wildlife. Learn about rugged, beautiful Kodiak Island and its amazing wildlife. Read about new and recent research on the animals on and near the Kodiak Archipelago, and enjoy the beautiful photographs by my husband, Mike Munsey.

Watch the trailer for more information about this book.

Kodiak Island Wildlife is available at: Amazon, Author Masterminds, and at other online booksellers. You can also order it directly from my publisher, Publication Consultants.

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Big Skate

April 4, 2021Fish, Kodiak WildlifeBig Skate, Kodiak Island wildlife, Robin Barefield, Skates in Alaskaadmin

The aptly named big skate (Raja binoculata) is the largest skate in the waters off North America. Big skates range along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California. They inhabit a variety of habitats, from bays and estuaries to the continental shelf. They prefer sandy or muddy bottoms and seem to prefer depths shallower than 390 ft. (120 m). They inhabit shallower water in the northern part of their range.

The largest big skate ever captured measured 7.9 ft. (2.4 m) in length, but they typically reach a maximum of 5.9 ft. (1.8 m) in length and weigh as much as 201 lbs. (91 kg). An average big skate weighs less than 110 lbs. (50 kg).

A big skate has a diamond-shaped, flattened pectoral fin disk. It has a pointed snout, and the eyes are small and sit just ahead of the spiracles. The tail has two small dorsal fins but no anal fin, and the caudal fin is only a simple fold. A juvenile has smooth skin, but an adult’s skin has small prickles on the dorsal surface, the underside of the snout, between the gill slits, and on the abdominal region. An irregular row of approximately 33 middorsal thorns runs down the back and tail to the first dorsal fin. A single thorn protrudes from behind each eye. The back of a big skate ranges in color from mottled reddish-brown to olive-brown to grey, and it is covered with small, pale white spots or dark blotches. The ventral surface ranges from white to gray.

A large dark spot with pale borders appears on each wing of a big skate, and biologists suspect these “eyespots” appear to predators as the eyes of a much larger animal, making a shark or another predator much less likely to attack the skate.

A big skate camouflages itself by partially burying its body in the sand and silt on the seafloor. Between its submerged position and its mottled coloration, a skate appears nearly invisible to predators and prey. When partially buried, it breathes with the aid of the spiracles on the top of its body. It takes water in through these spiracles and pushes it out through the gills on its dorsal surface.

Big skates differ from Alaska skates in that their egg cases may contain as many as seven eggs each. The big skate produces the largest egg case of any skate species, measuring 9 to 12 inches (23-31 cm) long and 4 to 7 inches (11-19 cm) wide. Big skates have a maximum lifespan of 26 years, but most big skates in Alaska don’t live past 15.

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The Warming North Pacific

February 21, 2021UncategorizedKodiak Island wildlife, Our Changing Oceans, Robin Barefield, Warming North Pacific, Wildlife in Alaskaadmin

The climate-change-induced temperature rise in the North Pacific Ocean has impacted flora and fauna from the tiniest phytoplankton to the largest whales. Since pre-industrial times, the oceans’ water temperature from the tropics to the poles has increased by 0.7°C. Scientists predict the water temperature will increase another 1.4°C to 5.8°C by the end of the century.

Melting sea ice and retreating glaciers offer the most visual evidence of these temperature changes, but our warming oceans’ impacts are many and varied. Most changes are subtle and occur slowly over time, but others explode into a mass mortality incident produced by something as seemingly innocent as a bloom of algae.

During the summer of 2015, warm weather across the North Pacific and West Coast of North America produced sea temperatures much higher than average. This warm water spawned massive algal blooms. While much of the algae was harmless, certain phytoplankton species in the bloom produced dangerous neurotoxins. Since plankton forms the base of the ocean’s food chain, this bloom negatively impacted marine life and fisheries from California to Alaska. Biologists identified nine dead fin whales near Kodiak Island in June and believed toxic algae caused their deaths.

During 2015, researchers noted extremely high levels of the algal toxin domoic acid, leading to closures of recreational razor clam harvests in Oregon and Washington. Fisheries managers also closed a large portion of the Washington state Dungeness crab fishery and some of the sardine and anchovy fisheries in California. Biologists measured the highest domoic acid levels ever recorded in Monterrey Bay, California, in May 2015.

Toxic algal blooms directly impact marine organisms, but ocean warming has also created many subtle changes to the biodiversity and population structures of organisms in the oceans, especially in the once ice-dominated areas of the northern Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. Warming ocean waters have significantly affected gray whales in recent years. Increasing seawater temperatures in the Bering Sea have reduced winter ice cover in the region, which has led to a reduction in productivity. Primary productivity in the northern Bering Sea declined by 70 percent from 1988 to 2004. This previously ice-dominated, shallow ecosystem favoring large communities of benthic amphipods, the favorite food of gray whales, has been replaced by an ecosystem dominated by pelagic fish (i.e., those that dwell neither on the bottom nor on the surface). Gray whales have responded by migrating farther north, but biologists cannot predict what will happen if amphipod communities disappear from this region.

During the summer of 2018, the waters in the Bering Sea soared nine degrees Fahrenheit (5°C) warmer than average. Gray whales responded by migrating farther north to the Chukchi Sea. Still, amphipods might now be disappearing from this region as well, forcing gray whales to consume less nutritious krill, and krill might not contain the amount of fatty acids the whales need to build adequate blubber. By the spring of 2019, numerous reports noting gray whale carcasses washed up on beaches from Mexico to Canada were alarming whale biologists. By the end of that year, 214 dead gray whales had been sighted. Of these, 122 carcasses had landed on US beaches, 11 on the shores of Canada, and 81 on Mexico’s beaches. In the United States, 48 whales died in Alaska. Since most whales sink to the ocean floor when they die, the recovered carcasses probably represented only a fraction of the number of gray whales that died in 2019. Most of the whales died on their northward migration after a winter of fasting.

The warming ocean impacts the animals living in the sea and birds and animal that depends on the ocean for their food supply or any part of their life cycle. In Prince William Sound, surveys suggest the horned puffin population in that area declined 79% from 1972 to 1998. Biologists believe this decline in numbers is due to significant changes in the food base due to global warming. In the fall of 2016, hundreds of tufted puffins starved to death in the Pribilof Islands. Like the earlier deaths of horned puffins in Prince William Sound, researchers blamed their deaths on a shortage of food linked to higher-than-normal ocean temperatures in the Bering Sea.

In my recent posts on sharks, I noted that sharks have become more common in the North Pacific in the past decade. Pacific cod populations have crashed in recent years, and the numbers of halibut, pollock, crab, and salmon also seem to be on the decline. As the North Pacific warms, will other types of fish and invertebrates move in to fill the void left by the once-dominant species, or will the ocean become a toxic cesspool, lacking any life?

Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

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Steller Sea Lions, Part 3

March 27, 2016Kodiak Wildlife, Steller Sea LionKodiak Island wildlife, predation on Steller sea lions, Sea lions, Sea lions in Alaska, Sea lions near Kodiak Island, Steller Sea Lion, Steller sea lion biologyadmin

This week I will discuss recent and current research on Steller sea lions as well as theories to explain why their numbers have decreased so rapidly over the last several years.

Steller sea lion females live up to thirty years, while males have a maximum life span of twenty years. Males have a much higher mortality rate than females, probably at least in part due to the stresses incurred by securing and maintaining territories. By the time they are ten years old, there is a three to one ratio of females to males.

Stellers die from a number of causes; many are well-understood, but the underlying reasons for their dramatic population decline are still a mystery. A high number of aborted Steller sea lion fetuses are found in the wild, and it is estimated that less than one-third of all pups reach sexual maturity. Pups may be washed off the rookery by storm waves or killed by adults tossing, biting, or crushing them. A pup may also be abandoned by his mother or die from disease or starvation. Threats to Steller sea lions of all ages include disease, loss of habitat, contaminants and pollutants, boat strikes, shooting by humans, entanglement in fishing nets and ocean debris, and indirect impacts, such as competition with fisheries for important food sources, including walleye Pollock.

It is known that sea lions are preyed upon by killer whales and sharks, but a recent study by a biologist at Oregon State University and a biologist with the Alaska Sea Life Center pinpointed a surprising possible predator of sea lions. Pacific sleeper sharks are a large, slow-moving species of shark that until recently were believed to be scavengers or to prey on fish. Pacific sleepers can grow to twenty feet (6.1 m) long, and there is now evidence that they may prey upon sea lions, although the incidence of this predation is unknown. Biologists inserted “life-history transmitters” into the abdomens of thirty-six juvenile Steller sea lions. These transmitters record temperature, light, and other properties during the sea lions’ lives. When a sea lion dies, the tags either float to the surface or fall out on shore and transmit the data by satellite to researchers. Seventeen of the original thirty-six tagged sea lions have died. Fifteen of the transmitters indicated the sea lions had been killed by predation. Usually when a sea lion is killed, the tag is ripped out of the body and floats to the surface, recording a rapid temperature change and exposure to light. Three of the predation deaths were different, though. They recorded an abrupt drop in temperature, but they did not float to the surface and sense light, indicating that they were still surrounded by tissue. The obvious explanation is that they were eaten by a cold-blooded animal such as a shark. The only other possible shark candidates in the area are great white sharks and salmon sharks, both of which have counter-current heat exchangers in their bodies, giving them higher body temperatures than those recorded. Biologists believe the only possible predator in the area that is large enough to eat a sea lion and has a body temperature as low as those recorded is a Pacific sleeper shark.

While still much more research is needed to definitively identify Pacific sleeper sharks as predators of sea lions and to understand how many sea lions sleeper sharks actually kill and eat, the possible ramifications are troubling. Ground fish harvests in some area of the Gulf of Alaska have been limited in recent years to reduce competition for fish that are preferred by Steller sea lions. It is possible, though, that limiting fishing has led to more fish, providing a food base for a larger population of Pacific sleeper sharks, and adult sleeper sharks may in turn prey on sea lions. If this is true, then management directives may have harmed rather than helped the Steller sea lion population in the Gulf of Alaska.

The relationship between Pacific sleeper sharks, sea lions, and ground fish is still not well understood, and it is a good example of the complexities of the North Pacific food web. Understanding why Steller sea lion populations, as well as populations of other pinnipeds, are decreasing in certain areas is not an easy undertaking. Several factors have been suggested to explain the decline of the western Steller sea lion population in the last three to four decades. Possible reasons are described as “top down” processes and “bottom up” processes. Top down processes include predation by killer whales or sharks; killing by humans, either directly such as by shooting, or indirectly by entanglement in fishing gear or ocean debris; and harassment of sea lions, especially at rookeries. Bottom-up processes include reduced prey quality and abundance, either due to competition with commercial fisheries or for some other reason; long-term shifts in their environment, such as changes in ocean temperature or an increase in contamination; and disease. At the present time, no one or combination of these factors sufficiently explains the decline of the western population of Steller sea lions.

There are currently a number of scientific studies examining the nutritional and biological needs of Stellers. An interesting result from a study by Carla Gerlinsky at the University of Washington showed that under-nourished sea lions are able to dive for a slightly longer period of time than unstressed sea lions when foraging for food. However, while the nutritionally-stressed sea lions are able to dive and therefore forage longer, they need more time on the surface to recover between dives, leading to longer foraging trips requiring more energy. These longer foraging trips also increase the risk of predation at sea and reduce the amount of time a female can spend feeding and taking care of her pup.

Biologists and fisheries managers are also working on practical solutions to decrease human/sea lion conflicts, such as non-lethal ways to deter sea lions from raiding commercial fishing nets, signage near harbors and fish-cleaning stations to remind people that feeding sea lions is a federal offense, and methods of keeping fish-cleaning stations tidy, so sea lions can’t help themselves to fish scraps. In Kodiak, sea lions were hauling out on an old breakwater float in the boat harbor, causing continual conflicts with humans at the harbor. When the old float was replaced with a new one, the old float was moved away from the dock, and the sea lions that had already staked claim to the float, moved with it, leaving the new float sea-lion free for human use.

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Sea Otters

February 7, 2016Kodiak Wildlife, Sea OtterKodiak Island wildlife, sea otter, Sea otters in Alaska, Sea Otters near Kodiak Islandadmin

Sea otters evoke strong emotions in humans. Most of us can’t help but say, “Ahhhh!” when we see a cute furry otter floating on its back or looking at us in surprise, front flippers held high in the air. Watching a baby sea otter sitting on its mother’s stomach, or hearing one break open a clam on a rock makes most of us smile. Many fishermen, though, are not fond of sea otters and for a good reason. Sea otters are so efficient at finding and eating shellfish that they are able to reduce populations of abalones, clams, and sea urchins to the point where a commercial fishery for these species is not viable in areas with large sea otter populations. In this post and my next two posts, I’ll discuss sea otters and their fascinating biology and behavior.

While sea otters are the second smallest marine mammal, they are the largest members of the mustelid family, which also includes freshwater otters, weasels, minks, skunks and badgers. Sea otters may weigh as much as 100 lbs (45.5 kg). The average adult California female weighs 44 lbs. (20 kg), and the average male weighs 64 lbs. (29 kg). In Alaska, the average adult female is 4 ft. (1.2 meters) long and weighs 60 lbs. (27.3 kg), while the average adult male is 5 ft. (1.5 meters) long and weighs 70 lbs. (31.8 kg).

Sea otters are the only mustelid in the genus Enhydra, and they are significantly different from all other mustelids. Sea otters are one of nine to thirteen (taxonomists disagree on the exact number) species of otters found around the world. Except for sea otters and the endangered species of marine otters, all other otters live primarily in freshwater, although river otters (Lutra canadensis) travel freely between rivers and the ocean, and on Kodiak, it is common to see river otters swimming near shore in the ocean. River otters and sea otters resemble each other, but sea otters are larger and weigh two to three times more than river otters. Sea otters have adapted to a life in the ocean with hind feet that are webbed to the tips of their toes and resemble flippers. River otters also have webbed feet, but they are small, making it easier for river otters to move on land, while sea otters are very clumsy out of water. A sea otter’s tail is flat and looks like a paddle, while a river otter has a long, round tail that tapers to a point. The claws in the forepaws of a sea otter can be extended, but those of a river otter cannot. River otters swim on their stomachs, and although sea otters can also swim on their stomachs, they usually swim on their backs while paddling with their hind flippers. River otters give birth to litters of up to four pups, but sea otters, like other marine mammals, usually only give birth to a single pup.

There are three subspecies of sea otters. Enhydra lutris lutris ranges from the Kuril Islands to the Commander Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The sea otters in this subspecies are the largest and have a wide skull and short nasal bones. The Southern sea otters, or the California sea otters as they are commonly called (Enhydra lutris nereis), are found off the coast of central California. Sea otters in this group are smaller and have a narrower skull with a long rostrum and small teeth. The vast majority of sea otters belong to the subspecies Enhydra lutris kenyoni, the Northern sea otters. This subspecies ranges from the Aleutian Islands to British Columbia, Washington, and northern Oregon.

Before the 1700’s, an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 sea otters inhabited the area from northern Japan to the Alaska Peninsula and along the Pacific coast of North America to southern California. Between 1741 and 1911 when sea otters were aggressively harvested for their luxurious furs, the population dropped to only 1000 to 2000 animals, and they had been eliminated from much of their original range. Many biologists believed the population was headed toward extinction. In 1911, the International Fur Seal Treaty was signed by the U.S., Russia, Great Britain, and Japan, stopping the commercial hunting of sea otters, and slowly, their numbers began to increase.Sea otters began re-colonizing much of their former range and were reintroduced to other areas. Sea otters now occupy about two-thirds of their historical range.

Counts between 2004 and 2007 estimate the worldwide sea otter population at approximately 107,000 animals. Sea otter populations are considered stable in most areas, although California populations have plateaued or slightly decreased, and there has been a drastic decline in sea otter numbers in southwest Alaska, from Kodiak Island through the western Aleutian Islands. This area once contained more than half of the world’s sea otters, but the population has declined by at least 55 to 67 percent since the mid 1980’s, and in 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed this distinct population segment as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In 1973, the otter population in Alaska was estimated at between 100,000 and 125,000 animals, but by 2006, the population had fallen to approximately 73,000 animals, mainly due to declines in the Southwest Alaska District Population Segment. The cause of this decline is unclear, but evidence suggests that it may be due to increased predation by killer whales.

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