Reward for sea lion shooter

Federal authorities are offering a reward for information on the shooting of seven Steller sea lions near Cordova.

Who killed the sea lions?

A commercial fishing group, Cordova District Fishermen United, is offering $5,000 for information leading to the conviction of whomever is responsible for a Steller sea lion slaughter near Cordova.

With the $2,500 federal officials have offered, the total reward is now $7,500. More details in this press release.

Groundfish industry gets good news on Stellers

A new biological opinion supports a partial rollback of controversial commercial fishing restrictions imposed in 2011 to protect endangered Steller sea lions in the Aleutians.

That's the upshot of this announcement today from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Delisted

The federal government is taking the eastern population of Steller sea lions, ranging from Southeast Alaska to California, off the threatened species list. Here's the press release.

The western population, from Prince William Sound through the Aleutians, remains on the endangered species list.

Steller sea lion plaintiffs suffer another defeat

Back in July, you'll recall, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled against the state and industry groups who sued over fishing restrictions imposed in the Aleutians to protect endangered Steller sea lions.

This week, the court denied a petition for rehearing.

State, industry lose Steller sea lion appeal

Here's the opinion from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Steller sea lion proceedings grind on

The National Marine Fisheries Service has released a draft environmental impact statement pertaining to endangered Steller sea lions in Western Alaska.

This is something NMFS produced only because a court ordered it to.

The agency, as you will recall, imposed tough restrictions on commercial fishing for mackerel and cod along the Aleutian chain beginning in 2011.

A bunch of angry industry players, as well as the state, sued NMFS, arguing the closures simply weren't justified on the notion that fishing boats were starving Stellers.

A federal judge upheld the fishing restrictions but said, tut-tut, the agency failed to do an EIS.

So here it is, a mere 1,281 pages in two volumes, for your reading pleasure.

Commercial fishermen are hoping this arduous EIS process might lead to a relaxation of some of the fishing restrictions.

Meantime, they have an appeal pending in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Independent experts rip Steller sea lion BiOp

A panel of independent experts is quite critical of the federal government's "biological opinion" that commercial fishing jeopardized endangered Steller sea lions in the Aleutian chain.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, if you'll recall, has imposed costly fishing closures in the region, an action that triggered state and industry lawsuits against the government.

Here are links to the expert reviews of the BiOp:

W.D. Bowen
Brent S. Stewart
Kevin Stokes

Russia's Stellers

Goodness knows the Alaska groundfish industry has taken some hits over the endangered Steller sea lion.

Just last year, you'll recall, federal regulators closed big stretches of water in the western and central Aleutians to commercial fishing to preserve prey for Stellers.

Of big interest to the industry, and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, is the status of Steller stocks much farther west, in Russian waters.

Well, we might soon find out.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking a contractor to conduct a boat-based survey of Steller adults and pups at rookeries and haulouts in East Kamchatka, the Commander Islands, the Kuril Islands, the Sea of Okhotsk and the western Bering Sea.

All told, the field work will cover 1,160 nautical miles of coastline and run into the summer of 2015.

"The contractor must have necessary personnel who are fluent in Russian and English and experienced in surveying and collecting this type of data in the Russian Far East and the ability to obtain the appropriate Russian permits," the contract solicitation says.