This is a draft report for public comment on an independent scientific review of the Biological Opinion (BiOp) issued 24 November, 2010 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) Management Area (NMFS 2010a) under a section 7 consultation required by the Endangered Species Act. . . .
The Finding of Jeopardy: We do not agree with the finding of JAM (jeopardy of adverse modification) for Steller sea lions in the western and central Aleutian Islands as concluded in the BiOp for the FMP. We find that NMFS misinterpreted crucial evidence from statistical studies of relationships between fishing and sea lion demographics. NMFS also failed to scientifically support their explanation of how fisheries affected sea lions (fishery-driven nutritional stress), and disregarded or misreported evidence that refutes the fishery-driven nutritional stress hypothesis. And finally, NMFS did not seriously consider alternative ecologically mediated explanations for declines in sea lion numbers not involving fisheries (environmentally-driven nutritional stress and the killer whale predation hypotheses).
Read the full report at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Published: July 21, 2011