Judge Orders Fishing Boats Out of Sea Lion’s Habitat

A federal judge in Seattle has ordered fishing trawlers out of coastal areas in western Alaska that are used by the endangered Steller sea lion, a ruling that could cut into the nation’s biggest commercial seafood harvests.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly, in an order filed Thursday, said he agrees with environmentalists who claimed that the National Marine Fisheries Service has failed to protect the dwindling Alaska sea lion population.

Zilly’s ruling closes trawl fishing in the critical habitat areas on Aug. 8.

There is adequate scientific evidence to back environmentalists’ claims that industrial-scale trawling of Alaskan pollock and other groundfish is crowding out sea lions at their foraging, breeding and resting sites, Zilly said.

Although the harvests’ actual effects are yet unknown, “the significant and demonstrated potential negative effects of these large fisheries constitute a clear threat to appreciably diminish the value of critical habitat for Steller sea lions,” the judge said.

Designated critical habitat zones include 40 rookeries and 83 haul-outs--rocky beaches where the sea lions gather, rest and breed--and the waters within 20 nautical miles of them.

For commercial fishermen, those sites are important harvest areas. About a third of the Bering Sea harvest of Alaskan pollock comes from designated critical habitat zones. For other species, including Pacific cod and Atka mackerel, that amount is half or more.

The harvest of Alaskan pollock from the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska is the nation’s biggest commercial seafood catch. The entire Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska groundfish harvest represents at least 40% of the nation’s commercial seafood catch, according to industry officials.

As the harvest of pollock and other species has boomed, the population of Steller sea lions, from Prince William Sound to the western tip of the Aleutians, has dropped.

The population was declared threatened in 1990 and endangered in 1997, after it dropped about 80% since the 1970s. Today, the population is in danger of being wiped out, and the mammals appear to be starving, some experts say.