Friday, July 21, 2000, 12:00 a.m. Pacific

Fishing ban to protect sea lion stuns North Pacific trawl fleet

by Hal Bernton and Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporters

A Seattle federal judge has banished the North Pacific trawl fleet from a large swath of rich fishing grounds in an effort to safeguard the endangered Steller's sea lion.

The injunction issued yesterday by U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly will take effect Aug. 8 and will stay in place until the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) formulates better protection plans for the sea lion and other marine life in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.

The ruling is one of the toughest judicial actions under the Endangered Species Act in the region since the 1991 order that temporarily halted logging in forests frequented by the northern spotted owl.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by environmentalists in 1998. Since then, Zilly has repeatedly criticized federal efforts to protect the Steller's sea lion, which forages on the same fish caught by commercial fleets. Yesterday, the judge attacked NMFS for appearing to tilt toward the industry as it prepared its protection plan. "The specter of a foregone conclusion haunts the proceedings," Zilly wrote in his ruling.

The government is hoping to develop a plan by October that meets court approval.

The ruling will affect Seattle- and Alaska-based trawlers that pursue pollock, cod and other groundfish in annual harvests worth about $1 billion.

Industry officials estimate the closures - if they last through December - would cost $93 million in revenue and $173 million more if they continue through the first six months of next year.

The Gulf of Alaska and the fishing port of Kodiak, where more than 80 percent of the harvest zone will be closed, is expected to be hardest hit.

"People are in shock," said Chris Blackburn, a Kodiak fishing representative. "A community on an island: Fishing is what we do."

The ruling would, to a lesser extent, affect the Bering Sea fishery that is the focal point for much of the Seattle-based trawl fleet.

The closure zones are important grounds for smaller boats that deliver to shore-based processing plants and are prized for roe-filled pollock pursued by larger factory trawlers during a winter harvest.

Much of the Bering Sea fleet already fishes in areas that will remain open farther out to sea. In the months ahead, fishermen hope to reach their annual limits in those areas, but longer voyages could increase expenses and reduce the quality of products.

Conservationists said the ruling is a major victory for enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.

"This is the first case of its kind in the country to really address critical habitat on such a scale," said Heather Weiner of the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund.

Mike Hagler, a Greenpeace representative, said the ruling forces NMFS to protect the marine ecosystem rather than favor the interests of commercial fishing.

Acting Commerce Secretary Robert Mallett, in a prepared statement, said, "we are extremely disappointed . . . While we recognize the need to protect endangered Steller sea lions, we're concerned this injunction will have a severe impact on Alaska coastal communities."

The fleet takes more than 2 billion pounds of pollock from Alaskan waters each year in harvests that employ up to 4,000.

Greenpeace, the American Oceans Campaign and the Sierra Club filed the lawsuit two years ago after raising concerns about diminishing populations of the Steller's sea lion even after the species was listed as endangered in 1997.

The lawsuit accused NMFS of ignoring and circumventing the National Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act in developing its initial protection plan for sea lions.

The Steller's sea lion ranges across the North Pacific Rim, from northern Japan to California. Adult males can weigh up to 2,000 pounds.

During the past 30 years, its populations have plummeted in the heart of its range, roughly from Prince William Sound through the Aleutian Islands. NMFS estimates its numbers have declined from 230,000 in 1965 to fewer than 40,000 today.

While the Steller's sea lions found west of Cape Suckling, Alaska, are considered endangered, the remainder of the population, which is found in California, Russia and Japan, is listed as threatened.

Conservationists say competition for food is a major cause of the animals' decline.

Fishing industry officials, however, say that they have taken numerous measures to protect Steller's sea lions and that fishing is already restricted within 20 miles of sea-lion breeding grounds.

They say sea lions are suffering because of poor ocean conditions that have reduced their favored food supplies, leaving them with less nutritious species, such as pollock.

Last July, Zilly ruled the NMFS had failed to do an environmental-impact study on the fishery as a whole. And he rejected as inadequate the agency's assessment of how the fishery affects pollock, now a staple of the sea lion's diet.

The agency responded by saying it would start a comprehensive biological investigation. Zilly in January slammed the agency again, saying its belated analysis was wanting.

The judge now wants a plan for protecting sea lions and another that would examine the effects of all types of fishing on marine life off Alaska.

Copyright© 2000 The Seattle Times Company