Seafood.com News [Cordova Times], February 3, 2012
By Margaret Bauman
A federal judge has ruled that commercial fishing restrictions aimed at protecting endangered Steller sea lions were properly imposed, because the sea lions are not getting enough food.
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess announced his decision in Anchorage on Jan 19 in litigation brought against the federal government by the state of Alaska and Alaska Seafood Cooperative.
Both had argued that since the population of western Steller sea lions was growing at a rate of 1 percent to 1.5 percent annually such restrictions on fishing were not needed.
Burgess wrote in his lengthy decision that “the court must defer to the technical expertise of the agency (National Marine Fisheries Service) as long as there is a rational connection between the evidence and its conclusions.”
Burgess said the evidence, “while equivocal, was sufficient to support its conclusions that the fisheries were likely to jeopardize the continued existence” of the Steller sea lions in the western Aleutians district and negatively affect their critical habitat.
At the same time, the judge admonished the National Marine Fisheries Service for failure to prepare an environmental impact statement and is considering instructing NMFS to do so.
Burgess has given all parties in the case a Feb. 8 deadline to file briefs responding to the court’s proposed decision in the case.
Commercial fishing interests harvesting Pacific cod and Atka mackerel in the western Aleutians contend that such restrictions on where they can fish results in the loss of millions of dollars in fish left unharvested.
John Gauvin, a veteran of the fishing industry who is the science director for the Alaska Seafood Cooperative, said that NMFS has not shown that the commercial harvests have had a negative effect on Steller sea lions in that area where the population is struggling, but has acknowledge a strong likelihood that orca whales are having a negative effect on that population.
Susan Murray, senior director for the Pacific region of Oceana, called the court’s decision a good day for the oceans. Murray said “this decision shows that responsible management requires steps to protect healthy ocean ecosystems including sustainable fisheries and vibrant communities. We are moving away form managing single species money fish and toward ecosystem-based management that takes into account the needs of apex predators in our oceans.”
Colin O’Brien, staff attorney at Earthjustice, said the decision “validates the agency’s use of the best science to protect our oceans. The next step is a full evaluation of the impacts of fisheries on ocean ecosystems, including Steller sea lions.”
Oceana and Greenpeace, represented by Earthjustice, intervened in the lawsuit to defend the new measures.
On the same day that Burgess made public his decision, a new scientific report made public by researchers from Oregon State University and the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward suggested that killer whales and sharks are killing Steller sea lion pups in increasingly high numbers.
For their research, the scientists had monitored 36 juvenile sea lions in Alaska’s Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound region of the Gulf of Alaska from 2005 through 2011 and documented the deaths of 11 pups. Results of their work, plus a computer model of survival rates, “suggest predation on juvenile sea lions as the largest impediment to recover of the species in the eastern Gulf of Alaska region,” the researchers said in a report published online Jan. 17 in the scientific journal PLoS One.
Michael Ramsingh
Seafood.com News 1-732-240-5330
Email comments to michaelramsingh@seafood.com
Source: Seafood.com News