STELLER SEA LION RESEARCH

Since 1980, more than 80% of the Steller sea lion population has disappeared, leaving the current wild populations with fewer than 50,000 individuals. In 1997, the U.S. government classified Steller sea lions as “endangered” in the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands.

Consortium Scientists are undertaking short and long term projects to test the hypotheses put forward to explain the decline of Steller sea lions. These studies draw on the expertise of physiologists, ecologists, marine mammalogists, fisheries specialists and oceanographers.

This concerted research effort involves studying sea lions in the field, in the laboratory, and integrating the results using mathematical modeling. Such a multidisciplinary approach is needed to determine the cause of changes in the North Pacific. Our research investigates:

• Biology and ecology―fundamental pieces of missing information
• Why did they decline?―there are four leading hypotheses
• Nutritional stress―ties all hypotheses together?
• New technologies―trained sea lions help develop new approaches