Good news, bad news, for Alaska sea lion numbers

A count of Alaska's Steller sea lion pups indicates the state's two populations are headed in different directions for recovery.
Pups in the eastern population, living along Alaska's Panhandle, are thriving.
"The eastern stock has met its recovery criteria," said Lowell Fritz, a biologist at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. The population may even be close to removal from the threatened species list, he said.
The western population, from Prince William Sound to the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea, continue to struggle.
"We expected to see the increased Steller sea lion numbers in southeast Alaska again," said Doug DeMaster, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. "The mixed results in the western population, however, indicate that some areas have improved in numbers while others continue to decline, especially the western Aleutian Islands."
Most of the world's sea lions live in Alaska. The western stock declined by 75 percent between 1976 and 1990, leading to their listing as endangered.
Disease and contaminants have diminished as suspects, Fritz said. The decline likely was due to a combination of factors, including environmental changes, nutritional stress or changes in prey compositions.
"We don't really know how to weight those," Fritz said.
Federal, university and state researchers have spent millions trying to find out. Federal wildlife managers implemented no-fishing zones around rookeries and haulouts to enhance recovery, a move questioned by Alaska's commercial fishing industry.
The eastern population, which extends from Alaska's Cape Saint Elias into California, was counted last year at between 45,000 and 51,000 animals. The population has more than doubled since it was declared threatened in 1990.
The last pup survey was done in 2005. Aerial surveys from June 24 to July 15 covered three-quarters of the western range, Fritz said. Survey sites in the western Aleutians or Pribilof Islands could not be flown and numbers from earlier years, mostly 2008, were used.
Pup production in the western population increased from 9,950 in 2005 to 11,120 this year but varied greatly by area. Pup counts increased 18 percent throughout the Gulf of Alaska and the eastern Aleutian Islands but were 6 percent lower in the central and western Aleutians.
The number of Steller sea lion pups counted southeast Alaska was 7,462. That exceeded previous counts going back to the 1960s. The new data indicate that pup production has increased at a rate of almost 4 percent per year at southeast Alaska's five major rookeries since the late 1970s.
Fritz said the surveys indicate some mingling of the populations. Recent genetic samples indicate that western females have moved to southeast Alaska and are breeding with the eastern population. Likewise, the easternmost rookery of the western population showed 200 more pups than four years ago.
"Some of that could be eastern moms moving west," Fritz said.

Most Alaskan Glaciers Retreating, Thinning, Or Stagnating

Most glaciers in every mountain range and island group in Alaska are experiencing significant retreat, thinning or stagnation, especially glaciers at lower elevations, according to a new book published by the U.S. Geological Survey. In places, these changes began as early as the middle of the 18th century.

Although more than 99 percent of Alaska's large glaciers are retreating, a handful, surprisingly, are advancing.
The Glaciers of Alaska, authored by USGS research geologist Bruce Molnia, represents a comprehensive overview of the state of the glaciers of Alaska at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century. Richard Williams Jr., an emeritus senior research glaciologist with the USGS, said the 550-page volume will serve as a major reference work for glaciologists studying glaciers in Alaska in the years and decades to come.
The report uses a combination of satellite images, vertical aerial photographs, oblique aerial photographs, and maps, supported by the scientific literature, to document the distribution and behavior of glaciers throughout Alaska.
The author concludes that, because of the vast areas encompassed by the glacierized regions of Alaska, satellite remote sensing provides the only feasible means of monitoring changes in glacier area and in position of termini -- the end of a glacier -- in response to short- and long-term changes in the marine and continental climates of Alaska.
Alaskan glaciers are found in 11 mountain ranges, one large island, one island chain, and one archipelago. Details about the recent behavior of many of Alaska's glaciers are contained in this richly illustrated book, with multiple photographs and satellite images, as well as hundreds of aerial photographs by Molnia, taken during his more than four decades of work in Alaska.
Three other USGS glaciologists authored two sidebar sections of the book: Columbia and Hubbard Tidewater Glaciers, by Robert M. Krimmel; and The 1986 and 2002 Temporary Closures of Russell Fiord by the Hubbard Glacier, by Bruce F. Molnia, Dennis C. Trabant, Rod S. March, and Robert M. Krimmel. A third section, Geospatial Inventory and Analysis of Glaciers: a Case Study for the Eastern Alaska Range, was authored by William F. Manley, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado.
Adapted from materials provided by United States Geological Survey.

Alaska Glacier Speed-up Tied To Internal Plumbing Issues, Says Study

A University of Colorado at Boulder study indicates meltwater periodically overwhelms the interior drainpipes of Alaska's Kennicott Glacier and causes it to lurch forward, similar to processes that may help explain the acceleration of glaciers observed recently on the Greenland ice sheet that are contributing to global sea rise।

According to CU-Boulder Professor Robert Anderson of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, the amount of water passing through conduits inside and underneath the Kennicott Glacier increases during seasonal melting and also following annual flooding from a nearby lake. The addition of excess water from melting and flooding causes water to back up into a honeycomb of passages inside the glacier, he said, suggesting the resulting increase in water pressure causes the glacier to slide more rapidly down its bedrock valley.
"The phenomenon is similar to the plumbing system of a house that is incapable of handling excess water or waste, causing it to back up," said Anderson. "This is a feedback we are still trying to understand and one that has big implications for understanding the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets, including the behavior of outlet glaciers on the Greenland ice sheet."
A paper on the subject appears in the January edition of the new monthly scientific journal, Nature Geoscience. The study was authored by former CU-Boulder graduate student Timothy Bartholomaus, Robert Anderson, and INSTAAR's Suzanne Anderson. Robert Anderson is a faculty member in the CU-Boulder geological sciences department and Suzanne Anderson is a faculty member the geography department.
The sliding eventually halts when the moving glacier opens up spaces in its bed that can accommodate some of the excess water, helping to relieve the water pressure, the authors said. In addition, high rates of water flow eventually enlarge the conduits and ducts permeating the glacier, "melting them back and allowing more water to bleed from the system, further decreasing the pressure," said Robert Anderson.
The Kennicott Glacier roughly doubled its normal 1-to-2 feet of movement per day during the 2006 sliding episodes tied to water pressure, said Anderson. When the glacier responded to a 2006 "outburst" flood -- when water from Hidden Creek Lake adjacent to the glacier rushed into the sub-glacial tunnel system and released an estimated 10 billion gallons of water under the glacier -- the pace ramped up to nearly 9 feet a day for the duration of the two-day period.
The team used GPS receivers positioned on the glacier as well as pressure gauges, temperature sensors, sonic distance measuring sensors and electrical conductivity probes. The conductivity levels in the water draining out of the glacier rose after backpressure in the glacier dissipated and expelled water high in chloride ions abundant in the salty bedrock beneath the ice, said co-author Suzanne Anderson.
"Nature essentially provided us with an extra probe to determine these sub-glacial processes, and ultimately provided an additional avenue of support for our model of how this system works," said Robert Anderson। The National Science Foundation funded the research.

An awareness of such glacial dynamics is important information for glaciologists studying the Greenland ice sheet, which is undergoing record surface melt and the subsequent drainage of large volumes of water through the ice sheet and associated outlet glaciers, the researchers said. Some of Greenland's outlet glaciers have sped up from 50 percent to 100 percent during the annual melt season and discharged substantially more ice into the seas, according to recent research led by CU-Boulder glaciologist Konrad Steffen.
"There are a number of catastrophic draining events of slush ponds on the Greenland ice sheet that may well promote increased sliding of the ice sheet as this water is jammed into a sub-glacial pipe system that is ill-prepared for such inputs," Robert Anderson said. "This phenomenon is also relevant to small glaciers around the world, because it may help to explain their nonsteady rates of sliding.
"People are becoming increasingly aware that sea-level rise is a very real problem," he said. "As scientists, we need to acknowledge the role of all of the world's ice masses and to understand the physical mechanisms by which they deliver water to the sea."
Adapted from materials provided by University of Colorado at Boulder.

Changing Ocean Conditions Led To Decline In Alaska's Sea Lion Population

A new study out of Alaska points out the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems, and the need for increased research and stronger science based management to address future concerns.

Studies by a team of scientists at the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Research Consortium revealed that a sudden ocean climate change 30 years ago changed today's Alaska marine ecosystems, and may be a leading factor in the decline of Alaska's endangered western stock of Steller sea lions.
Theories why the Steller sea lion population declined by more than 80 percent during the 1980s include pollution, commercial fishing, and subsistence harvesting. The new study points instead to a climate regime shift--a natural event in the ocean's climatic cycle--in the late 1970s that may be responsible for current regional population of about 40,000, compared with 235,000 in the 1970s.
The publication, entitled Bottom-up forcing and the decline of Steller sea lions in Alaska: assessing the ocean climate hypothesis found that climate change affected water temperatures and ocean currents determining the abundance of available fish for the sea lion's to eat. Changes in prey led to a decline in the sea lion population. Using interdisciplinary research methods was key in determining the root cause of the sea lion decline.
The need for such research is echoed in a related report: "Conserving Alaska's Oceans," prepared by Natural Resources Consultants. The report outlines 30 years of improved ocean conservation in the waters off Alaska with recommendations for future action. The report makes ten recommendations for continued improvement, including the need to address climate impacts, embrace the goals of ecosystem based fishery management, and the need to strengthen science programs to address future uncertainty.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Marine Conservation Alliance.

Bush Lifts Oil and Gas Drilling Ban for Alaska Bay

January 10, 2007 - By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- President Bush lifted a ban Tuesday on oil and gas drilling in
Alaska's Bristol Bay, an area known for its endangered whales and the
world's largest run of sockeye salmon.

The action clears the way for the Interior Department to open 5.6 million
acres of the fish-rich waters northwest of the Alaska Peninsula as part of
its next five-year leasing plan.

"There will be significant opportunities for study and public comment before
any oil and gas development could take place," said Interior Secretary Dirk
Kempthorne. But he said the bay, as well as expanded drilling in the Gulf of
Mexico, "will enhance America's energy security."

Interior's tentative plans call for Bristol Bay leases being made available
in 2010 and 2012, pending the environmental reviews.

Kempthorne said Alaska state officials as well as some local and native
groups had asked that the ban be ended to spur the local fishing-dominated
economy.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who in 2003 got Congress to lift its moratorium
on drilling in the bay, called the president's decision "welcome news for
people who live and work" there.

Alaska's newly elected Republican governor, Sarah Palin, welcomed the
possibility of additional oil and gas production and promised "a very
aggressive role in making sure our fisheries are protected."

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Lawsuit seeks to shield Alaska sea otter

Lawsuit seeks to shield Alaska sea otter

By MARY PEMBERTON
C 2006 The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A conservation group, alarmed at a decrease in the
number of sea otters in southwest Alaska, filed a lawsuit in federal court
on Tuesday to try to compel the government to designate critical habitat to
help the endangered species recover.

The lawsuit, filed by the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity,
argues that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service missed an Aug. 9 deadline for
the designation under the Endangered Species Act. If granted, the
designation means that federal agencies must ensure activities in certain
areas do not harm the species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service generally is required to designate
critical habitat when a species is listed as endangered or within a year if
it can't be done immediately. The sea otter was put on the list in August
2005.

"Sea otters in southwest Alaska are in a grave situation with alarming and
ongoing population declines," the lawsuit says. "The absence of critical
habitat permits the degradation, modification, and destruction of habitat
essential to the Alaska sea otter's survival and recovery."

Douglas Burn, a wildlife biologist with U.S. Fish and Wildlife in Anchorage,
said while he can't comment on the lawsuit the agency is not ignoring the
issue. He said a team of experts is helping develop a recovery plan for the
sea otter and has discussed the role of critical habitat.

The 1,000-mile long Aleutian Island chain once had an estimated 75,000 sea
otters _ slightly more than the current statewide total.

Now, there are about 8,700 sea otters in the Aleutians and numbers for the
southwestern region, which includes the Aleutians, have dropped by more than
half, said Burn. There are an estimated 73,000 sea otters in the entire
state now.

Full story at