Contact:  Brian Gorman            FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                  April 2, 1998

Spotting a California sea lion foraging for steelhead at Seattle's Ballard Locks is getting about as rare as finding a sunny day this spring at the locks' Lake Washington location, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

It used to be that dozens of hungry sea lions could be found hanging out at the locks from January through April every year, gobbling up returning steelhead heading for the locks' fish ladder and into Lake Washington to spawn. The steelhead population was dwindling -- reaching a disastrous record low of 70 returning spawners in 1994 -- in large part because of the sea lions' enormous appetite for the legendary sport fish.

But for the past two seasons, sea lions have hardly made an appearance at the locks. They were present for just over two hours during the first two and one-half months of 1997. This year, their time at the locks is even shorter: less than an hour from January through March 15.

Only one steelhead has been killed to date by a sea lion this year, by a lone, unmarked animal March 30.

What's the reason for the welcome decline?

"It appears the primary reason for our success," says Joe Scordino, a marine biologist and marine mammal specialist with the fisheries service, "is that we permanently removed the three most troublesome sea lions in 1996, one of which had been returning to the locks every year since 1989 to eat steelhead."

Scordino says the key to the agency's success was targeting the few sea lions responsible for most of the predation, and permanently removing them.

According to Scordino, after years of unsuccessful attempts to drive the problem sea lions away -- using firecrackers, barrier nets, rubber-tipped arrows, foul-tasting fish, even trucking some to California -- a change in the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1994 allowed sea lions known to be harming steelhead to be targeted for "permanent removal."

The changes to the federal law provided for killing problem animals, but the three sea lions removed in 1996 were shipped to Sea World, following the aquarium's offer to house the animals in its facility in Orlando, Fla.

"Although we have observed many sea lions near the Ballard Locks, in Shillshole Bay, very few -- perhaps no more than a dozen all told -- ever came up to the dam and ate steelhead," Scordino explained.

"The problem was never sea lions in general," he added. "The problem has always been a few sea lions in particular."

Scordino also noted that not only are the sea lions spending almost no time near the locks, but the number of returning adult steelhead is up. Through March 15 this year, 95 steelhead were counted passing through the locks' fish ladder. Although this number is down from the 138 counted during the same period last year, biologists consider it encouraging, since it represents the progeny of two years (1993 and 1994) that had very few returning adults.

In 1996, before the "problem" animals were removed, sea lion presence was high (95 hours of observed sea lion presence) and only 38 steelhead were counted at the ladder.

Underwater noisemakers are still in operation to deter any new sea lions that might explore the locks area looking for food. The fisheries service said it recently expanded the area where these acoustic devices are working.