“The clock is ticking towards Steller sea lion extinction, but
NMFS still allows areas essential to the species to remain a major
focus for the trawl fisheries,” said Paul Clarke, Greenpeace Oceans
Campaigner. “NMFS needs to stop applying band-aids and head-off the
extinction of this animal by prohibiting trawling in critical
habitat.”
Steller sea lion populations in Alaska have dropped dramatically
in the past 30 years. In parts of the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering
Sea, the endangered western stock has plummeted by 80-90%. NMFS
first listed the population as threatened under the ESA in 1991,
and reclassified the status of the western stock to endangered in
1997, acknowledging that extinction could occur in the foreseeable
future.
This drop coincides with the development of massive groundfish
trawl fisheries in these same areas since the 1960s. Trawling is a
fishing practice that involves towing large nets behind the vessel
in pursuit of large volumes of groundfish, such as pollock, Pacific
cod and Atka mackerel, and which claims many other species of fish
as unwanted bycatch. These same groundfish also serve as primary
prey for Steller sea lions and other marine mammals and seabirds.
Food limitation is the leading explanation for the sea lion’s
decline, and scientists point to the trawl fisheries as having the
greatest potential impact on prey availability for Steller sea
lions.
Steller sea lion critical habitat was established in 1993, and
includes aquatic regions out to 20 nautical miles around
terrestrial rookeries and haulouts, as well as three distinct
aquatic areas in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska that are known
to be essential feeding areas for sea lions. Critical habitat is
defined under the Endangered Species Act as areas that are
“essential to the conservation of the species”. These same areas
are also targeted by the groundfish trawl industry, with as much as
50-80% of recent trawl fishery catches of key sea lion prey species
taken from areas designated as Steller sea lion critical
habitat.
“The fisheries can afford to move out of critical habitat, but
sea lions can’t,” said Phil Kline, Fisheries Policy Director for
American Oceans Campaign. “NMFS has repeatedly failed to protect
Steller sea lions; every year that the agency fails to act is
another lost opportunity, and time is slipping away for the sea
lions.”
On January 25 District Court Judge Thomas Zilly ruled that NMFS
was in continued violation of the ESA for failing to prepare a
comprehensive biological opinion examining the cumulative effects
of North Pacific groundfish trawling on Steller sea lions. Today’s
action stems from a lawsuit filed in April 1998 by Earthjustice
Legal Defense Fund and Trustees for Alaska on behalf of Greenpeace,
American Oceans Campaign, and Sierra Club Alaska against NMFS for
violations of the ESA and National Environmental Policy Act.
