Disentanglement Program

The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI) Ecosystem Conservation Office (ECO) was formed in 1998. Due to the remote location of the Pribilof Islands, it is not practical for external assistance in responding to stranded marine mammals, especially entangled northern fur seals (NFS). ECO occasionally receives assistance and works closely with biologists from the NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Laboratory and National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) Alaska Regional Office to help identify, capture, and disentangle entangled NFS that may be observed during various research activities. Part of ECO’s work includes periodic marine debris cleanup efforts on NFS rookeries and haulouts on the Pribilof Islands, as well as in the co-development of educational materials for the fishing industry.​

ECO has been involved in the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network since 1998 (current stranding agreement: SA-AKR-2025-06). The response area includes the Pribilof Islands, Alaska (Otter Island, St. George Island, St. Paul Island, Sea Lion Rock, and Walrus Island). ECO’s primary focus is sighting and disentangling NFS from marine debris. Additionally, ECO responds to strandings of other species such as Steller sea lion (SSL; Eumetopias jubatus), Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens), harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), Orca (Orcinus orca), and a number of other species that occur on our islands. The ACSPI, through its ECO, performs a variety of research and monitoring activities that produce consistent and valuable year-round data. ECO is in a unique position, as the local co-management entity, to provide essential contributions to the overall scientific understanding of marine mammals occurring in St. Paul. Since the signing of the original co-management agreement in 2000, ECO has made significant progress in developing and expanding their capacity to participate in sharing local management, research and decision-making responsibilities for NFS and SSL on St. Paul Island and seek to increase and expand local capacity and participation in marine mammal research, management and conservation activities for all marine mammal species that occur on St. Paul Island.

NFS (Callorhinus ursinus) is the only fur seal species found in the north Pacific Ocean. NFS return to their breeding colonies in spring, predominantly breeding on the Pribilof Islands. Today, NFS breeding on the Pribilof Islands, together with Bogoslof Island to the south, make up the “Eastern Pacific stock”. As year-round residents of the Pribilof Islands, the Aleut people, or the “People of the Seal”, are uniquely positioned to address the decline in NFS. NFS entanglements in marine debris, including abandoned, lost and derelict fishing gear, play a significant role in ECO activities on St. Paul Island.​​

In 2000, ACSPI entered into a formal agreement for co-management of marine mammals with NMFS under the MMPA, Section 119,. This agreement authorizes the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, “To reduce the level of entanglement and effect the release of NFS and sea lions from marine debris…” by performing the following activities: “a) Collection of information regarding date, location, sex, age class, debris type, capture attempts, disentanglements…”, and “b) Calculation of entanglement rates…”. Accordingly, ACSPI has demonstrated the capacity to conduct research and monitoring studies in recent years, and the development of the entanglement research program has been exemplary of ACSPI’s co-management role.​

Starting in June 2021 in recognition that marine debris continued to be a global and local problem contributing to entanglement of NFS on St. Paul, ECO reinitiated efforts to implement a dedicated seasonal disentanglement program and since then have achieved a level of success that has been applauded by our community, the broader National Stranding Network, and is consistent with the priorities of the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program (MMHSRP).​​

Starting in 2022, ECO employees Dallas Melovidov and Chelsea Campbell joined Paul Melovidov and Aaron Lestenkof on ACSPI’s fur seal disentanglement program. The disentanglement program conducts bi-weekly surveys at 11 different haulouts around St. Paul Island for ~16-weeks every summer (June-October). This amounts to ~352 surveys every summer looking for and responding to entangled fur seals. All debris successfully removed from an animal is collected, catalogued, and stored for future analysis.

Program Objectives: prioritize the safe and effective use of physical restraint to disentangle northern fur seals.

1. Ensure maintenance of our high-quality disentanglement program
2. Enhance data collection and capacity for response to live entangled stranded NFS.
3. Enhance educational outreach and engagement on St. Paul to address the persistent problem of NFS entanglement in lost, abandoned, and derelict fishing gear and other marine debris.

Recent stats:

• 2022 = 46 NFS disentangled
  • 22 packings bands
  • 3 pups disentangled this year
• 2023 = 52 NFS disentangled
  • 21 packing bands
  • 3 were disentangled at the annual fur seal harvest
• 2024 = 27 NFS disentangled
  • 18 packing bands
  • 12 adult males successfully disentangled
• 2025 = 63 NFS disentangled
  • 43 packing bands
  • ECO successfully tagged 16 disentangled seals to help monitor survival

Indigenous Sentinels Network (ISN)

The first generation of the Indigenous Sentinels Network – then called the Bering Watch/Island Sentinel Program – began in the early 2000s when the ECO hired sentinels to monitor wildlife species and environmental conditions in the Pribilof Islands. The monitoring program has been refined over the last 20 years by Tribal employees, contractors, and local volunteers.​​

Data are now collected through iOS and Android applications or ‘Apps’. Information is stored in an online database to facilitate collaboration and data sharing amongst Tribes, communities, and partners. The insights that have been pulled from this program have provided significant benefits to the people of St. Paul Island and other Indigenous communities throughout Alaska.

Check out www.sentinelsnetwork.org for more ISN info!

Subsistence Monitoring​

​During harvest season please report all subsistence takes of laaqudan (fur seals), qawan (sea lions), and isuĝin (harbor seals), including retrieved and struck and lost to ECO Island Sentinels within 24 – 48 hours, or NMFS on-island representative Jacob Merculief, within two business days.​

Paul Melovidov – 901-546-4030
Aaron Lestenkof – 901-546-4450
Jacob Merculief – 901-546-4011

Please arrange with Island Sentinels (or NMFS on-island representative if outside of normal business hours) so that we may collect the snout at the time of retrieval. These data are incredibly valuable.