• DIET: clams, urchins, crabs, mussels, and occasionally fish and sea birds
• AVG SIZE: Body 55-130cm with a tail 13-33cm long and weighing up to 45kg
• LIFE SPAN: ~20 years
• PREDATORS: sharks, (bald eagles & coyotes have been known to prey on young pups)
• NOTE: Only marine member in the weasel family (Mustelidae); largest member of weasel family, but smallest marine mammal; rarely comes ashore;

(U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Marine Mammals Management Office, October 2001; www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/600.shtml)

• DIET: marine mammals (other whales, seals, sea lions, walruses), fish, squid, and occasionally sea birds, sea otters and penguins
• AVG SIZE: Males grow between 7-8m & weigh over 5,000kg. Females grow between 5-7m & weigh over 3,000kg
• LIFE SPAN: Males live ~35 years, but can reach 50-60 years. Females average ~50 years but can reach 80-90 years.
• NOTE: one of the most widespread mammals in the world and fastest animals in the sea (55.5 km/h or 34.5 mph).

(www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/91.shtml)

• DIET: Fish such as gadids (pollock, cod, hake, whiting, haddock), salmon, squid, flatfish, herring, mackerel, capelin
• AVG SIZE: Males (bulls) grow to 3m, 1000 kg. Females (cows) grow to 2m, 300kg
• LIFE SPAN: ~30 years
• PREDATORS: sharks and killer whales
• NOTE: the largest of the sea lions and will sometimes kill other pinnipeds; known to make dives of 400m in search of food; males are polygamous and territorial on land.

(Trites and Donnelly, 2003; www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/171.shtml)

Giant Kelp, Macrocystic pyrifera

• DIET: needs sunlight, nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon dioxide to photosynthesize
• AVG SIZE: 6 to 30 m
• DISTRIBUTION: Alaska to Baja California, and west coast of South America, southern Africa, and southern Australia
• PREDATORS: herbivores, primarily sea urchins
• NOTE: Tall stands of giant kelp make up a kelp forest

Sea uchins, Strongylocentrotus franciscanus and Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis (Red & Green sea urchin)

• DIET: kelp, macroalgae
• PREDATORS: sea otters, humans, sea stars, crabs, wolf eels, lobsters, and fishes
• DISTRIBUTION: Red - Baja California to Alaska and Aleutian Islands to Hokaido Island, Japan; Green - on Pacific coast from northern Washington to Alaska.
• NOTE: This is an echinoderm, related to sea stars and sea cucumbers. About 5 to 35% of the sea urchin is roe, i.e. gonads, that are extracted for consumption. This is a delicacy in many seafood restaurants.

(www.dced.state.ak.us/cbd/seafood/recoveries)

Abalone, Haliotis sp. (Flat & Pinto abalones)

• DIET: marine algae
• PREDATORS: sea otters, humans
• DISTRIBUTION: Alaska to San Diego, California
• NOTE: This is a marine snail, related to clams and squids. About 42% of the animal is edible meat, and the decorative shell is used to make jewelry & other handicrafts.

(www.state.ak.us/local/akpages/FISH.GAME/notebook/shellfsh/abalone.htm; www.dced.state.ak.us/cbd/seafood/recoveries/shellfish/shellfish14.htm)

Clams

• DIET: microscopic plants & animals (clams are filter feeders)
• PREDATORS: sea otters, humans
• DISTRIBUTION: Alaska to Baja California
• NOTE: This is a bivalve, and is related to octopods and mussels. About 30 to 60% of the animal is edible meat, depending on the species.

(www.dced.state.ak.us/cbd/seafood/recoveries)

Gadids

• DIET:
• PREDATORS:
• DISTRIBUTION:
• NOTE: schooling fish; commercially valuable.

Herring, Clupea pallasi

• DIET: plankton
• PREDATORS: sea lions
• DISTRIBUTION:
• NOTE: schooling fish; commercially valuable.

Groundfish

• DIET:
• PREDATORS:
• DISTRIBUTION:
• NOTE: flatfish; commercially valuable.

Native Alaskan tribes

Many scholars theorize that aboriginal groups in Alaska came to North America across the Bering land bridge from Northeast Asia . The people settled and developed a variety of cultures over several millennia since their first arrival.

• Eskimos is one of the more numerous populations, and is made up of more than twenty separate groups. They ranged from the Arctic and Bering Sea coasts down to south central Alaska, including Kodiak, and primarily stay inland. Their communities are grouped into three major languages: Inupiaq in northern regions of Alaska, Siberian and Central Yupik to the west, and Sugpiaq to the south.
• The Aleut live along the thousand-mile Aleutian Archipelago, and had developed a seafaring culture acclimated to the harsh environment. They were expert hunters at sea with boats made of skin (baidarkas). They endured the greatest impact from the Russian colonization.
• The Tlingit, in southeastern Alaska, are the largest native community. They traditionally controlled commerce between coastal and native villages of the Canadian interiort. Their more advanced culture and skills in warfare protected them from Russian colonization.
• The Haida, who emigrated in recent centuries to the southern part of Prince of Wales Island, share many elements of culture with the Tlingit and other tribes of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
• The Tsimshians on Annette Island migrated there from British Columbia under the leadership of an Anglican priest, Father William Duncan, in 1887. They also shared many cultural elements with the Tlingit and other tribes of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

• The Athabaskans of interior Alaska, some of whom live nearer to the coast in the Cook Inlet region, are linguistically related to the southeastern Alaskan cultures as well as to more southern Native Americans such as the Navajo. The Athabaskans developed a far more nomadic lifestyle, however, as they adapted to the necessity of following migratory game.
• Creoles have mixed Russian and native Alaskan ancestry. This term is borrowed from the Creole of colonial France, and was applied to people who typically had a Russian father and a native mother. Creoles became an important source of Russian labor for the tsarist colony. By the 1860s, the Creoles easily outnumbered the Russians and were a mainstay of the colonial economy.

(memory.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfak/mfaknative.html)

Modern inhabitants

• SIZE: 570,375 sq miles (1,477,268 sq km)
• POPULATION: 610,000
• CAPITAL: Juneau (population 31,000)
• PEOPLE: 75% Caucasian, 15% Inupiaq and other indigenous groups, 4% black, 3.2% Asian
• LANGUAGES: English plus Native Alaskan languages
• RELIGION: Christian
• MAJOR INDUSTRIES : Oil and gas (25% of US production), tourism, commercial fishing, mining