Title: Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Juvenile Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus) Predation Events in the Gulf of Alaska Abstract approved:

The first objective of this study was to quantify the intensity of space use of 70 juvenile (12-26 months old) Steller sea lions (SSLs) from the western Distinct Population Segment (DPS) in the Kenai Fjord(KF)/Prince William Sound (PWS) region of Alaska as derived from externally attached ARGOS satellite transmitter tags. A Bayesian state-space model (SSM) approach was used to process and interpolate the ARGOS-based locations. The resulting tracks were then used to quantify the spatio-temporal distribution of SSLs by way of a gridded utilization distribution (UD) in the study area. Each of six combined two-month UDs had an average of 24 ± 4.16 animals (range: 20-30) contributing around 5,090 ±1,879 filtered locations (range: 2,757-7,593). Results of the bimonthly UDs show juvenile SSL remained within the KF/PWS study region during the tracking period, with the exception of one individual, TJ16 (male), who crossed the 144 ° W Meridian separating the western and eastern DPS. Furthermore, results revealed that juveniles exhibit different spatial distributions depending on the time of year. They remain confined to