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Large numbers of breeding fur seals were harvested from the South Farallon Islands (SFI; 37 42'N, 123 00'W) off San Francisco, California, in the early nineteenth century (Bancroft 1886, Starks 1922, Townsend 1931, Busch 1985). Although harvest records are poor and perhaps unreliable, they suggest that well over 100,000 fur seals were taken by American and British sealers between 1807 and 1812, and smaller numbers were harvested by Russian sealers through 1834. The colony was extirpated, and no fur seals were recorded at the islands through the 19th and early 20th centuries (Bancroft 1886, Starks 1922, Ainley and Lewis 1974, York 1987). Despite this substantial harvest, no scientific specimens or taxonomic notes were taken; thus, the identity of this fur seal population remains uncertain (Peterson and Le Boeuf 1969). The colony was initially thought to represent the northern range extent of Guadalupe …