The Steller's sea lion ranges across the North Pacific Rim, from northern Japan to California. Adult males can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. During the past 30 years, its populations have plummeted in the heart of its range, roughly from Prince William Sound through the Aleutian Islands. NMFS estimates its numbers have declined from 230,000 in 1965 to fewer than 40,000 today. While the Steller's sea lions found west of Cape Suckling, Alaska, are considered endangered, the remainder of the population, which is found in California, Russia and Japan, is listed as threatened.
Conservationists say competition for food is a major cause of the animals' decline.
Fishing industry officials, however, say that they have taken numerous measures to protect Steller's sea lions and that fishing is already restricted within 20 miles of sea-lion breeding grounds. They say sea lions are suffering because of poor ocean conditions that have reduced their favored food supplies, leaving them with less nutritious species, such as pollock. Last July, Zilly ruled the NMFS had failed to do an environmental-impact study on the fishery as a whole. And he rejected as inadequate the agency's assessment of how the fishery affects pollock, now a staple of the sea lion's diet. The agency responded by saying it would start a comprehensive biological investigation.