Reports

The Decline of the Steller Sea Lion in Alaskan Waters: Untangling Food Webs and Fishing Nets (2003)

Press Release
Report in Brief
Report Summary

The Alaskan population of Steller sea lions has declined more than 80 percent in the last 30 years. Large-scale fishing effects on the food supply of Alaska's Steller sea lions do not appear to be the main reason for their current, continuing decline. This report concluded that a combination of other possible factors, including entanglement or injury by fishing gear, illegal shooting, predation by killer whales, subsistence harvesting, and disease, may be causing the decline. Establishing a series of carefully monitored open and closed fishing areas is the best way to measure fishing's impact on sea lion survival.
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