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Title Decline of the Steller sea lion in Alaskan waters : untangling food webs and fishing nets / Committee on the Alaska Groundfish Fishery and Steller Sea Lions, Ocean Studies Board, Polar Research Board, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Research Council of the National Academies
Published Washington, D.C. : National Academies Press, ©2003

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 204 pages) : illustrations, maps
Contents Front Matterr -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Executive Summary -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Environmental Setting -- 3 Identifying Clues and Testing Hypotheses -- 4 Review of Steller Sea Lion Biology -- 5 Fisheries -- 5 Fisheries -- 6 Steller Sea Lion Decline: Environmental Context and Compendium of Evidence -- 7 Information Needs and Recommendations -- References -- APPENDIX A Committee and Staff Biographies -- APPENDIX B Acronyms -- APPENDIX C Glossary -- APPENDIX D Early Account of Steller Sea Lions -- APPENDIX E Federal Funding Summary
APPENDIX F Meeting AgendasAPPENDIX G National Research Council Project Oversight Boards -- APPENDIX H Guide to the Common and Scientific Names of Marine Mammal, Fish, Invertebrate, and Bird Species
Summary For an unknown reason, the Steller sea lion population in Alaska has declined by 80% over the past three decades. In 2001, the National Research Council began a study to assess the many hypotheses proposed to explain the sea lion decline including insufficient food due to fishing or the late 1970s climate/regime shift, a disease epidemic, pollution, illegal shooting, subsistence harvest, and predation by killer whales or sharks. The report's analysis indicates that the population decline cannot be explained only by a decreased availability of food; hence other factors, such as predation and illegal shooting, deserve further study. The report recommends a management strategy that could help determine the impact of fisheries on sea lion survival -- establishing open and closed fishing areas around sea lion rookeries. This strategy would allow researchers to study sea lions in relatively controlled, contrasting environments. Experimental area closures will help fill some short-term data gaps, but long-term monitoring will be required to understand why sea lions are at a fraction of their former abundance
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-178)
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Steller's sea lion -- Alaska
Sea lions -- Alaska
Fisheries -- Alaska
Animal populations.
Food chains (Ecology)
Fishing nets -- Environmental aspects -- Alaska
Food Chain
SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Zoology -- Mammals.
NATURE -- Animals -- Mammals.
Animal populations
Fisheries
Fishing nets -- Environmental aspects
Food chains (Ecology)
Sea lions
Steller's sea lion
Bedrohte Tiere
Netzfischerei
Nahrungskette
Seelöwen
Alaska
Alaska
Form Electronic book
Author National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on the Alaska Groundfish Fishery and Steller Sea Lions
ISBN 0309512530
9780309512534