Creating a Fishery that Sea Lions Can Live With

The biggest human-caused impact to Steller sea lionsis intensive industrial trawling for groundfish in their

critical habitat. In 1998, 1.9 million tons of groundfish –nearly 4 billion pounds - were caught in Alaska waters,making this fishery the largest in North America and partof the largest in the world.

Groundfish, such as pollock and Pacific cod, are used aswhitefish in the U.S. and foreign markets for fast foodsandwiches, fish sticks, and frozen entrees. Pollock andother groundfish are also used to make a protein pastecalled surimi, which is in high demand in the Japaneseand Korean markets, and is also sold in the U.S. as artifi-cial crab or lobster. Most of this fish is sold for penniesper pound.

In recent years, more than half of all groundfish weretrawled from critical habitat, the areas most essential toSteller sea lion recovery and survival. Groundfish trawlingoccurs throughout most of the year, but effort is especiallygreat during the cold winter months when sea lions aremost vulnerable. The capacity in many of these fisheries

is so great and the effort so intense that the quotas formost fisheries are reached in just a few weeks.

As shown in the "Decades of Decline" chronology in thispacket, until conservationists sued, NMFS and the NorthPacific Fishery Management Council did little to distrib-ute this enormous fishing effort in a way that would pro-tect the critical habitat of Steller sea lions. Although theCouncil maintains that overall fishing rates are conserva-tive, these rates fail to take into account where and whenthe fish is caught. A major problem with this system isthat fishing can become concentrated in those areas thatare most important to the sea lions, at the times when thesea lions most need the fish such as the cold wintermonths. Regular government surveys demonstrate thatcritical habitat areas account for a minority of the overallgroundfish biomass; however, a majority of fish are caughtfrom these areas.

Recovery of Steller sea lions in Alaska depends on changes in thegroundfish fishery.

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IMPORTANT FACTS

• Most groundfish are located outside of critical habitat,

but most groundfish trawling occurs within critical

h a b i t a t .

• Trawling is so concentrated and intense that the quo-

tas for most Alaskan groundfish fisheries are reached in

a just a few weeks.

• The Steller sea lion population has increased in the

last two decades in Southeast Alaska where there is now

no trawling for groundfish.

Joel Sartore/www.joelsartore.com

Critical habitat was designated because these areas areof special significance to the survival and recovery ofSteller sea lions. While there are some restrictions ontrawling in some parts of critical habitat, a great dealof groundfish trawling continues to occur in criticalhabitat. The shift to trawling inside these areas is arelatively recent phenomenon that has largelyoccurred since the fisheries were "Americanized" inthe 1970’s.

Steller Sea Lion Protections Should:

• Protect the full extent of critical habitat aroundall designated rookeries and haulouts within a 20nautical mile radius and within the three at-seaforaging areas. Until scientists determine what levelof trawl fishing is consistent with the protection andrecovery of Steller sea lions, such fishing must be pro-hibited in critical habitat areas. By moving the fish-eries out of critical habitat, the trawl fleet will poseless of a hazard to Steller sea lions, as well as takepressure off of spawning groundfish stocks in thesesame regions; this could benefit groundfish stocks aswell, which ultimately benefits the groundfish fishingindustry. The industrial groundfish trawl fisheriesmust move out of these areas, or switch to moreselective gear types.

• Reduce catches in the critical fall and wintermonths. Government scientists have repeatedlydemonstrated the importance of this time of year tothe foraging success and nutritional needs of Stellersea lions; prudence dictates that we no longer con-centrate the groundfish trawl fisheries in this time ofyear. Fishing on concentrations of spawning fishshould be limited as well.

• Redistribute catches in at least four seasons.Outside of critical habitat, fishing effort must also bedistributed in such a way as to prevent the concentra-tion of effort in time and space. Among otherthings, distribution of fishing should match distribu-tion of fish. Despite surveys that demonstrate thatmost of the fish are outside critical habitat, most ofthe trawl fishing occurs in these areas. In order tominimize the effects of the industrial groundfishtrawl fleet on the marine ecosystem, the catch shouldmatch distribution of the fish as closely as possible.

• Consider cumulative effects of fishing on ecosys-tem. The current system of setting catch levels anddetermining how, when, and where fish are caughtmust be substantially reformed. The system mustconsider the combined cumulative effects of fishing,rather than just looking at individual stocks of fish.When setting fishing levels, fisheries managers mustexplicitly consider the needs of all predators in theecosystem – like Steller sea lions – rather than justusing the current single-species model.