The Pros And Cons Of Steller Sea Lions

Consuming roughly 6% of its body weight a day, Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus) is the largest species of sea lions in the world (IUCN website, 2016, Vanaqua website, 2017). With this large a requirement for resources, sea lions and fisheries are often found competing for the same marine resources (Sepúlveda et al. 2006, Pont et al. 2014, Hui et al. 2015). After a 2013 examination by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US administration determined that the eastern stock of Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus ssp. monteriensis) could be removed from the countries list of Endangered and Threatened Species which the species had been on since 1990 (Fritz et al. 1995, NOAA website, 2013, IUCN website, 2016). The

Fisherman make up a larger portion of the people involved in this industry. Alaskan fisherman in the groundfish industry will normally use trawlers in order to capture their stocks (McBeath. 2004). The pollock industry alone as of 2004, employed 4000 fishermen (McBeath. 2004). These fishermen are the main human presence that Steller Sea Lions will interact with. Negative interactions between humans and sea lions tend to result in losses of both gear and stock (Pont et al. 2015). As seen in other species such as the South American Sea Lion (Otaria byronia), fisherman have been known to view sea lions as competition and therefore persecute them (Pont et al. 2015). Pont et al (2015) also showed that workers who had only elementary or no education were more likely to kill a sea lion than those that had a high school education (complete or incomplete). With Steller Sea Lion populations only recently having recovered, extreme tactics such as those are not likely in the future of the eastern Steller Sea Lions. With only the pollock subsection of the groundfish industry worth around $80 million dollars as of 2004, the fishing industry may be willing to invest money in providing further education to their workers about the marine ecosystems that they are operating in (McBeath. 2004). This has the added benefit of raising awareness of the sensitive nature of both the groundfish and sea lion populations, and

Persecuting of the species is an option that could be taken, but highly socially unacceptable, especially with a species that has only recently been removed from the IUCN red list (Marshall et al. 2015, IUCN website, 2016). Also, there are examples where the intentional removal of a pinniped could result in the depression of a fisheries resources instead of increasing it as seen in South Africa (Gales et al. 2003). If the fisheries were to increase their catch biomass, and that resulted in negative effects to E. jubatus, this may result in a backlash from the public. Even before this increase in the eastern stock of sea lions, the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) recommended a cautious approach to increasing groundfish catches (Fritz et al. 1995). Multi-species protection plans which protect both the groundfish populations and the sea lion populations will have to be conducted, along with future research in order to determine the best course of action (Marshall et al.