Steller Sea Lion Regulations is going to take place very soon as the federal government took its first step in preparing an environmental impact statement on commercial fishing restrictions in the western Aleutians. NOAA is now accepting public comment on how Steller sea lion protection measures have affected them.
NOAA has already closed the Atka mackerel and Pacific cod fisheries in 2011 in an effort to limit food competition with an endangered stock of Steller sea lions. The regulations have fought legal battle to reach this final stage. After much hue and cry in the court, a federal judge determined that the regulations were appropriate, but that NOAA erred in not evaluating the impacts to the human environment through an impact statement. NOAA must now complete a statement by 2014, a process which could change the way those fisheries are managed.
