NMFS accused of waffling on sea lion protection

A study by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory indicated that if the population trend continued there was a very high probability that Steller sea lions would be extinct in Alaska from Prince William Sound westward within 100 years

November 16, 1998
Web posted at: 1:45 PM EST

By Environmental News Network staff

(ENN) -- Two environmental groups charge that the federal agency responsible for fisheries is waffling on making the changes necessary to ensure the survival of the Steller Sea Lion.

American Oceans Campaign and Greenpeace say the National Marine Fisheries Service knows the groundfish trawl fisheries off Alaska are jeopardizing endangered sea lions but is caving in to pressure from the fishing industry.

Under the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, eight regional councils were established in the U.S. to manage local fisheries. The act was passed principally to address heavy foreign fishing, promote the development of a domestic fleet and link the fishing community more directly to the management process. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which manages the fishery for the coast of Alaska, is meeting this week to make decisions regarding next year's fishery management. NMFS has responsibility under the Endangered Species Act to protect the Steller sea lion. The agency has released several proposals for redistributing the fisheries but has yet to make a final recommendation.

No one disagrees that the Steller sea lion is in trouble. The population has declined by 80 to 90 percent since the 1960s and the most recent sea lion survey indicates that their numbers continue to plunge throughout western Alaska. The Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska historically have supported some of the largest and most diverse concentrations of marine mammals and seabirds in the world. Steller seal lions, seals and seabirds all have declined dramatically since the 1960s. All of these declines appear to be related to food limitations.

The Steller sea lion was listed as a threatened species in 1990. During the period between 1990-1992, NMFS created a series of buffers around the sea lion rookeries to try to protect them from the impacts of the commercial groundfish fishery. However, a 1992-93 analysis conducted by A. York and Dr. R. Merrick of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory indicated that if the population trend continued there was a very high probability that sea lions would be extinct in Alaska from Prince William Sound westward within 100 years. In 1997, after a continued and precipitous decline in numbers, NMFS reclassified the western population of sea lions, from Prince William Sound westward, as an endangered species.

The Sierra Club, American Oceans Campaign and Greenpeace filed a lawsuit in April which charged the agency with failing to protect the Steller's designated critical foraging habitats. All evidence indicates that the declines in sea lions, seals and other predators coincides with the development of high-volume trawl fisheries in the same times and areas. In the Bering Sea, record levels of 50-70 percent of the pollock catch and over 80 percent of the Atka mackerel catch, are taken from designated critical foraging habitat for Steller sea lions. The catches have occurred increasingly

Complicating the picture is a piece of legislation -- the American Fisheries Act -- which was tacked on to the Omnibus Appropriations bill passed by Congress in mid-October. The bill, which was widely supported in its original form, would have removed factory trawlers from Alaska waters. During the last minute negotiations, a compromise was struck by Sen. Slade Gorton, the senator for Washington where the trawler fleet is based, and only a token number of trawlers will be removed from the fishery, according to Paul Clarke, Greenpeace spokesman. The compromise package also calls for the reallocation of the pollock fishery so that the nearshore fleet would receive a larger percentage.

The environmental groups want a greater distribution of the fishery in both time and space in addition to a reduction in total allowable catch. Right now the fishery season is short and intense, and increasingly has taken place during the difficult fall and winter months, when sea lions are more likely to be food stressed -- pups are learning to forage on their own and heavy nutritional demands are placed on nursing and pregnant females. In addition, the fishery is estimated to have extracted as much as 50 percent of the pollock surveyed in that area in recent years and the spawning stock of pollock is also steadily declining.

"It's time for NMFS to step in and do their job," said Clarke, who is attending the meeting. "NMFS needs to make a determination that the fishery is managed first to protect the environment and marine mammals, and not primarily for the economic benefit of the fishing industry."

NMFS must submit a decision by Dec. 16 to the judge hearing the lawsuit. According to Clarke, who is attending the meeting, NMFS plans to send its recommendations to the fishery management council during the first week of December. From there it would seem that the fate of the Steller sea lion may lie in the hands of the council or the judge.

Copyright 1998, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved