10,000 to >1,000,000 individuals

Comments: Total population probably is at least 500,000. Population in eastern Canada south of Labrador was about 13,000 (and increasing) in the mid-1980s. In 1986, nearly 13,000 were counted at haul-out sites in Maine. Several thousand occur in winter in coastal southern New England. Total population in the North Pacific was estimated at more than 300,000 in 1979, with at least two-thirds of these in Alaska. Post-pupping population in British Columbia was 75,000-88,000 in the late 1980s. California population was estimated at 34,500 in the mid-1990s (NMFS, Federal Gister, 15 March 1996). See Reeves et al. (1992) for information on