Feds Target Seals
by Laura Seligsohn
Pinniped Fisheries Campaign

After 25 years of protection, California's sea lions may soon be targets of a large-scale federally-approved killing program. A National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) draft management plan proposes killing seals and sea lions to protect dwindling stocks of salmon and steelhead and to reduce competition for fish between these pinnipeds and humans.

An estimated 150,000 sea lions live along the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington - up from 15,000 in the early 1970s. Pacific harbor seals total approximately 300,000, with 250,000 of these in Alaskan waters.

While admitting the "incomplete documentation" and "limited" scientific information on the nature and extent of conflicts between pinnipeds and other elements of West Coast ecosystems," the NMFS has requested that Congress sanction "lethal removal" of California sea lions or Pacific harbor seals where these species are impacting Endangered Species Act-listed salmonids [or] "are adversely impacting salmonid populations identified as being of special concern by states, or where these pinniped species are in conflict with human activities."

The lethal removal allowance requires that non-lethal deterrents be attempted first. Currently, to get authority for lethal removal of pinnipeds, a state is required to demonstrate that individual pinnipeds are having a "significant negative impact on salmonid populations listed or proposed listed under the ESA." The proposal would also permit commercial fishers to kill sea lions and harbor seals in order to protect their gear and catch. Declining Salmon Populations
The irony is that the decline of salmon and steelhead in this century has nothing to do with predation by pinnipeds. Their decline has been the result of dams that have blocked stream and river access and the degradation of water quality in streams.

Since the Friant Dam was built on the San Joaquin River in the mid- 1940s, the river's king salmon runs have decreased by 90 percent. Oregon's Columbia River and California's Trinity, Klamath and Sacramento rivers, have seen similar losses. Multiple populations of Pacific salmon and steelhead are currently listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA.

The 1988 Annual Report of the California Advisory Committee on Salmon and Steelhead Trout identified the major threats to salmon survival as agricultural diversions, temperature-altering reservoir water releases, logging, grazing, mining, land development and road construction. "The principal problems causing salmon and steelhead trout declines can be tied to one vital issue: water. Salmon and steelhead are threatened most by inadequate streamflows and the loss or degradation of habitat," the report concluded.

In some cases, salmon stocks are now so precariously low due to freshwater mismanagement that they are vulnerable to the relatively small effects of both human and marine mammal fishing. The NMFS report itself admits that "predation by pinnipeds is not a principal factor in the proposed listing under the ESA of any salmonid populations." Given this background, NMFS's targeting of marine mammals is clearly misguided.

According to fisheries biologist Pat Higgins, salmon and steelhead are not a principal food for seals and sea lions. In fact, seals generally prefer bottom fish such as sole, halibut and flounder. Predation on salmonids by pinnipeds is more typically the result of artificial bottlenecks along salmon and steelhead migration routes.

A prime example is Seattle's Ballard Locks, whose design creates a convenient feeding station for sea lions. Elsewhere along the Eastern Pacific coast, river diversion, siltation and deforestation have destroyed key estuarine areas. Tree-fringed pools, once deep enough to conceal fish, now lie shallow and exposed. Forced into the warmer estuarine waters, fish become exposed to increased catch risk.

Low water in the estuaries is a determining factor in salmonid-pinniped interactions. In high-water years, where depth and turbidity offered increased protection, fewer than 10 percent of the fish had seal scars. In rivers with shallow, clear water, more than 33 percent of the fish had scars.

Given the low numbers of fish, the need for more sensitive management is urgent. Alyssa Rosen of the Sierra Club's Salmon Project has criticized the NMFS for lagging in its issuance of land-use guidelines designed to protect coho salmon from the adverse impacts of industry. "They are basically giving [Charles] Hurwitz [owner of the famed old-growth Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County, California] a present by not regulating industrial logging," Rosen fumes. "It's all smoke and mirrors."

Much of the pressure to allow the killing of seals and sea lions has come from fishers, some of whom report losing more than half their catch to hungry pinnipeds. Other fishers, however, see shooting sea lions as an unsatisfactory solution.

Zeke Grader, director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, notes that "responsible fishery advocates are not saying the sea lions are the problem. Clearly, it's been the severe habitat degradation." He cites the need for long-term habitat restoration efforts, including upstream and upslope regulations, coldwater releases from dams, removal of small hydroelectric dams, better fish screens and management of instream flow.

The key thing, Grader says, is to protect watersheds. "I'm fearful about what NMFS has proposed," Grader confides. "This is going to create a more dangerous situation on the ocean and a big public relations problem for the fishing industry." He notes that there would still be a huge salmonid management problem even "if we had no sea lions."

One alternative to killing seals and sea lions calls for temporarily relocating pinnipeds from sensitive areas to protect the fish. This would buy time for remediating the real causes of fish depletion.

What You Can Do: Express you concerns to the NMFS [Rolland Schmitten, 1315 East West Hwy, Silver Spring MD 20910]. For more information, contact IMMP, 300 Broadway, No. 29, San Francisco, CA 94133.