Relationship between adult female northern fur seal behavioral state, eddy distribution and ecosystem.

<p>Left panels: Behavioral states (solid black line; left y-axis) of four females compared to the distance of the closest eddy edge (colored dots; right y-axis) in each Large Marine Ecosystem traversed: NP = North Pacific Ocean, AS = Alaska Stream, BB = Bering Sea Basin, BS = Bering Sea Shelf, CC = California Current, GA = Gulf of Alaska (see Fig. 1). Right panels: female geographic distributions–color dots scale distance to the closest eddy edge. While females traversed several eddies during their winter migration, they appeared to dramatically shift their behavioral state to resident when aligned along eddy edges and once they arrived in the GA and CC ecosystems.