ANCHORAGE, Alaska – August 3, 2010 – Atka mackerel and Pacific cod fisheries in far western Alaska should close so that endangered sea lions can get enough to eat, government scientists said Monday.
A report by the National Marine Fisheries Service said current fishing practices don't appear to be affecting endangered whales but that is not the case with Steller sea lions, whose numbers have declined dramatically.
About 45,000 sea lions lived on the western Aleutian Islands in 2008, compared with perhaps 250,000 in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were listed as endangered in 1997 under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Fishermen harvest more than 4 billion pounds of fish from the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska each year. Most of the world's sea lions live along Alaska's vast coastline.
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