FINAL PROJECT: Abstract and Reader's Reponse > Limits to Recovery of the Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus) Population in the Gulf of Alaska Due to Biological Factors
Can you find an article that comments on the tourism value for sea lions? Is that one way to address this audience?
December 10, 2015 |
Marybeth Shea
Marybeth Shea
The Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) is an endangered pinniped found in the northern Pacific Ocean from Alaska to Japan. From the late 1970s to 1990, the species experienced a severe population decline, the cause of which is still uncertain due to the difficulty of studying the species and its habitat. Due to the large drop in population numbers, the species was listed as endangered under the ESA in 1990. Since then, the NMFS has created a Steller Sea Lion Recovery Plan, which has been updated over the years, to assist wildlife managers and conservation biologists about how best to tackle this issue of recovery. The protection under the ESA and the recovery plan have achieved a status where the species has been recovering by about 3% per year. With the existing amount of protection, however, the recovery should be occurring at a faster rate. Here I review three behaviors inherent to the species—alloparenting, caring for multiple offspring, and varied attendance of pups in the winter—to discuss ways in which the biology of the species is responsible for slow recovery. Considering these three factors, I suggest that future management focus more on protection of critical fisheries to minimize the effect of nutritional stress in conjunction with these behaviors.
READER'S PROFILE:
A wildlife manager or conservation biologist in Alaska who would like to know more information about ways that they could improve conservation plans, because the species is not recovering as quickly as they are expecting.
READER'S RESPONSE:
You described biological and behavioral reasons behind what you think may be limiting recovery rates, but so what? If these are inherent to the species, what can we do about it? You cited and agreed with research that says that the current conservation plan is causing some recovery, as minimal as it may be. Why can't we just accept this slow recovery? Is your suggestion to protect more fisheries really plausible?