Department of Commerce
NOAA Fisheries Service
- Northwest Regional Office
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 1999
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Brian Gorman
(206) 526 – 6613
Mike Fergus
(562) 980-4022 |
FEDERAL RESOURCE AGENCY SAYS GROWING WEST
COAST SEAL, SEA LION POPULATIONS INCREASINGLY IN CONFLICT WITH
HUMANS, SALMON
Rapidly growing populations of California sea lions and Pacific
harbor seals on the West Coast can harm salmon stocks and other
fish that are at low levels, including those listed or proposed
to be listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, NOAA's National
Marine Fisheries Service said in a report sent to Congress today.
The report, also citing increasing incidents of sea lions that
cannot be deterred from docks and marinas, said sea lions and harbor
seals may be a threat to public safety at such locations.
Harbor seals, California sea lions and other marine mammals,
such as whales and porpoises, have been protected by the federal
Marine Mammal Protection Act since 1972. The results, according
to the report, have been mixed. Some animals, like North Atlantic
right whales, Steller sea lions and Hawaiian monk seals, remain
critically endangered. Others, like California sea lions and
Pacific harbor seals, have increased so rapidly that there are
now frequent and serious conflicts between them and humans coast
wide.
The fisheries service report, compiled with the assistance and
concurrence of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission and
the fish and wildlife agencies of California, Washington and Oregon,
was requested by Congress in 1994 to address the effects of rising
West Coast pinniped populations on declining salmon stocks and
interactions with humans. Congress would have to change the Marine
Mammal Protection Act to put the report’s recommendations
into effect.
The 18-page report to Congress is based on a larger scientific
report, also produced by the fisheries service, that describes
robust and increasing seal and sea lion populations on the West
Coast. According to the latest figures available, the scientific
report estimates that by the mid-1990s there were 188,000 California
sea lions and 76,000 harbor seals off California, Oregon and Washington.
These populations have grown at an annual rate of about 5 to 7
percent, tripling their numbers since the 1970s.
Although not the primary cause for the salmon's decline, both
seals and sea lions are known to eat fish from depressed stocks
of salmon and steelhead, especially at areas of restricted passage
like river mouths and dams, and this can prevent or delay recovery
of declining fish populations. Fisheries service biologists note
that there is a wide variety of other factors, including habitat
degradation, dams, fishing and competition from hatchery salmon,
responsible for these population declines.
"It's impossible to measure exactly how great an impact seal
and sea lion predation is having on salmon," said William
Stelle, NOAA Fisheries Northwest Region administrator. "But
we do know that sound principles of wildlife management tell us
that we should minimize the pressure being put on already badly
diminished runs of these fish." Stelle said the report recommends
applying a conservative principle in natural resource management,
favoring the resource most in need of protection when information
is uncertain.
The report says in certain situations where seals or sea lions
are preying on salmonids listed or about to be listed under the
Endangered Species Act, state and federal wildlife managers, under
strict federal guidelines and as a last resort, should be permitted
to lethally remove these marine mammals.
The agency's experience at Seattle's Ballard Locks, where for
years sea lions preyed on an imperiled run of steelhead, shows
that much of the predation is caused by a very small number of
problem animals. Permanently removing only those animals, as was
done with three Seattle sea lions in 1996, can virtually eliminate
further predation.
“Human safety must be the prime concern when seals and sea
lions directly encounter people,” said William Hogarth, NOAA
Fisheries Southwest Region administrator. “Our goal is to
reduce interactions using every non-lethal technique available,
but there are situations where a few animals are threatening people
and property and we need more effective tools to deal with that
conflict.”
The report recommends that, in cases where seals or sea lions
are causing repeated, serious conflict with human activity at locations
such as fishing grounds or marinas, state or federal managers should
be authorized to lethally remove identified problem marine mammals,
if individual animals fail to respond to repeated attempts to deter
them.
Other recommendations include developing safe and effective deterrents,
so that lethal removal of problem animals is a seldom-used option.
There is a "pressing need," according to the report,
for research on the development of effective devices and methods
that would drive away seals and sea lions from problem areas without
harming them.
The report also recommends that Congress consider reinstating
the authority, removed from the federal marine mammal protection
law in 1994, that allows a fisher to lethally remove a seal or
sea lion to protect his catch or gear if the animal cannot be otherwise
deterred. Such authority, the report says, would be only for certain
fishers at specific sites and seasons, and only until effective
non-lethal means to deter seals and sea lions can be developed.
The fisheries service is charged with protecting marine mammals
under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and with recovering threatened
and endangered salmon and steelhead under the Endangered Species
Act.
Copies of the Congressional report, the 84-page scientific document
that supports it, and other supporting materials are available
on the Northwest Region office’s home page at www.nwr.noaa.gov.
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