Protected Sea Lions Endangering Rare Fish in the Pacific Northwest

Fishermen, divers and residents of Puget Sound are being frustrated by large herds of sea lions and harbor seals feasting on bottom fish, salmon and rare steelhead trout heading upstream to spawn.

The federal law that protects certain whales and other marine mammals prohibits killing any of the sea lions, which consume more than half the steelhead migration each year. As many as 2,000 sea lions come to this area each fall and their numbers are on the rise, wildlife experts say.

Here, floats designed as rest spots for divers typically are crowded with barking sea lions, and at least one ferry dock reeks from their droppings.

California sea lions arrive in October and November and stay in the Northwest into April and May, then return south.

Sea lions and harbor seals, which live in the same area year-round, have flourished under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. The law was intended to save species of whales, sea otters and other marine mammals--including some seals and sea lions--whose numbers had declined over the last 100 years.

Seals, Bears Compared

“People like to watch the bears at Yellowstone Park, but if they get into the garbage cans or pose a threat, (bears) are removed, and if they return once or twice, the animals are destroyed,” said James Schmidt of Trout Unlimited in Seattle.

“One (animal) learns it from the other. You have to learn to eliminate the ones that have learned to go to the garbage dump.”

Just as bears are drawn to campers’ trash bins, sea lions here are attracted to Ballard Locks in Seattle, where salmon and steelhead must scale a fish ladder to reach the fresh waters of Lake Washington and the streams where they are to spawn. Once a sea lion learns that the fish are easy pickings, he brings his buddies, scientists say.

“It’s just got worse and worse since 1980,” said Susan Ewing of the Washington Department of Wildlife. She said that only a few sea lions used to show up, but now as many as 26 will be at the fish ladder when the steelhead start running this month.

Last winter, about 800 of the wild steelhead managed to reach their spawning grounds. Sea lions are blamed for killing more than that number. The previous winter, less than 500 of the fish escaped to spawn.

A group of commercial and sport fishermen this year lobbied for changes in the Marine Mammal Protection Act that would have allowed federal fisheries managers to shoot sea lions that preyed on the fish.

Jerry Pavletich of the Salmon and Steelhead Council of Trout Unlimited said that various efforts to chase away the sea lions or protect the approach to the fish ladder have failed.

Unless the sea lions are somehow driven off, he said, the steelhead trout, an endangered species, may be lost. But Congress decided against allowing any killing of sea lions.

“I think Congress refused to bite the bullet,” Pavletich said. “It’s understandable. It’s a very emotional issue. There is strong support to protect marine mammals at any cost--even at the cost of our fisheries resources, and that is unfortunate.”

Congress did, however, continue the law five more years, and is calling for research into fisheries and mammal resources in the North Pacific, an idea that some fish managers applauded.

A large environmental coalition, led by Greenpeace, also was pleased with the legislative outcome.

Ben Deeble, Northwest ocean ecology campaigner for Greenpeace, said Congress simply didn’t believe the marine mammal herds should be subject to thinning because of the one problem in Puget Sound.

Pavletich said the law allows petitioning for a review of marine mammal populations and the head of the U.S. Department of Commerce could authorize the shooting of some sea lions.

Joe Scordino, marine mammal coordinator for the Northwest regional office of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the sea lion hasn’t been endangered since it was hunted in the 1920s.

Guy Thornburgh, executive director of the Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission in Portland, Ore., said he would like to see a regional management council for marine mammals, like the fisheries commission, to develop a policy on marine mammal management.

According to Scordino, an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 sea lions feed in Puget Sound each year, from fall to spring. Each year, their numbers and the length of their stay appear to be on the rise, Scordino said.

There may be as many as 4,000 more sea lions fattening up each winter in British Columbia’s Georgia Strait, and as many as 157,000 may inhabit West Coast waters altogether.

Although direct links between sea lions and hake, or whiting, stocks haven’t been established, Cyreis Schmitt, a state fisheries marine biologist, said the fishery has plunged from an estimated 45 million pounds in 1983 to 14 million pounds this year.

She said the fishery may have to be closed for a couple years if it’s to be saved.

Sea lions were estimated to have eaten up to 2 million pounds of hake this year, while fishermen were allowed to take only 500,000 pounds.

Pat Gearin, biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said hake, a much slower fish than salmon or steelhead, was found in 68% of sea lion scat, or droppings, studied in the sound in 1987.

Seals Multiplying Too

Meanwhile, harbor seal populations in Northwest coastal waters have increased 10% a year since 1976. They forage freely in areas where they used to be shot by fishermen, Scordino said.

More than 75% of the gill-net salmon fisheries at Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay are being destroyed by harbor seals, he said, adding, “I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg.”

Fortunately, Scordino said, tackling sea lion nuisance problems unrelated to fisheries has been a lot easier.

Large rafts floated for divers at the Edmonds Underwater Park have been replaced with smaller, foam floats that the sea lions can’t use, and a floating platform at the local ferry dock has been fenced off.