A number of recent authors (Gabrielson 1940, 1944; Murie 1959; and others) have considered the pelagic cormorant to be the most widely distributed and abundant of the four species found in Alaska. Since the modern picture fits, in a general way at least, it would be easy to conclude that the species enjoys an unchanged status. There is just a faint suggestion that this may not be true.
Dement'ev and Gladkov (1966) refer to a great die-off of pelagic cormorants referred to earlier, in the Commander Islands. Stejneger (1885) enlarges on this disaster. It is true that Stejneger visited these islands a relatively short time after the die-off, but he reported that even though the pelagic cormorants were increasing, "people having seen their former multitude think that there is no comparison between the past and the present." Murie (1959) thought that the pelagic cormorant, while numerous, was outnumbered by the red-faced cormorant in the Aleutians. More recently there has been the rapid eastward expansion of the red-faced cormorant. Although it is not possible to determine what the real status of the pelagic cormorant is relative to its past status, I conclude that during this century its status relative to that of the red-faced cormorant has declined.
Red-faced Cormorant _(Phalacrocorax urile)_
The red-faced cormorant, in spite of superficial similarities to the pelagic cormorant, just does not look the same to an experienced observer. However, it would have been possible for inexperienced observers in the days before modern optics to overlook the differences. The problem was further compounded by the "invisibility" of the ubiquitous cormorants referred to earlier. Apparent absences or blank spots in their range may not have been real.
Dement'ev and Gladkov (1966), reporting on the Russian record, stated that the red-faced cormorant was common in the Commander Islands during the last part of the 19th century and into the early part of the 20th. Older authors had also reported it from Kamchatka and the Kurile Islands. Now, according to Dement'ev and Gladkov, it is an uncommon breeder on Mednyi Island in the Commander Islands and occurs only as an autumn visitor to some of the southern Kurile Islands.