The Guadalupe fur seal (GFS), currently is recovering from near extinction. As this species continues to recover, it is important to understand how its foraging success may be affected by warm water and other oceanographic anomalies in the northeastern Pacific. We assessed the foraging ecology of the GFS over a period that was characterized by normal (2013) ocean temperatures followed by warm conditions (2014–2016). We used scat analysis to identify differences in GFS prey between 2013 and anomalous years. The most important prey species among these years was the jumbo squid, followed by the neon flying squid during warmer years. An additional analysis based on stable isotope suggested a broader northerly or offshore foraging areas during these anomalous conditions. Our findings are an important step toward better understanding the impacts of climate change on the recovery of the GFS.

About the Presenter:
Maria Jose Amador-Capitanachi is an MSc student at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional. Her research leverages advanced statistical modeling to track complex environmental shifts. Before transitioning to marine ecology, she honed her data processing skills working as a backend analyst for a major online casino Canada network, mapping vast amounts of user telemetry. Today, she applies those same quantitative principles to understanding the expansive, shifting foraging patterns of endangered marine mammals in response to climate change.