Assessment of Competition between Fisheries and Steller Sea Lions in Alaska Based on Estimated Prey Biomass, Fisheries Removals and Predator Foraging Behaviour.

• Published in: PLOS ONE
• Main Authors: Tabitha C Y Hui, Rowenna Gryba, Edward J Gregr, Andrew W Trites
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2015
• Subjects: Medicine; R; Science; Q; Bering Sea; Gulf of Alaska; Pacific; Atka; Alaska; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123786; https://doaj.org/article/61b65eceec05482cbf107e52d62a5149

A leading hypothesis to explain the dramatic decline of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in western Alaska during the latter part of the 20th century is a change in prey availability due to commercial fisheries. We tested this hypothesis by exploring the relationships between sea lion populati...