By: Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon
Federal regulators plan to reevaluate fishing closure boundaries established to protect endangered Steller sea lions in Alaska, part of a national Trump administration push to cut regulation of U.S. commercial seafood harvests.
The Steller sea lion protections are among a series of rules that the administration is seeking to relax or change to carry out a mandate from President Donald Trump to increase catches, reduce regulation and ensure that the nation is “the world’s dominant seafood leader.”
The recommended changes were released on Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries service and are in response to Trump’s 2025 executive order titled “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” They could affect oceans from New England and the Caribbean to the tropical Pacific and the Bering Sea.
Several months of public consultations resulted in a list of recommendations that “we believe will reduce burdens on domestic fishing, increase production, stabilize markets, improve access, and enhance economic profitability,” NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Eugenio Piñeiro Soler said in a statement.
Steller sea lions in Alaska have suffered a population decline that extended over several decades.
The no-fishing zones intended to protect them are established around sea lion rookeries, places where the animals gather to mate and raise their pups, and major haul-out sites. There are also transit restrictions in areas where the sea lions gather, as well as seasonal harvest limits on fish that are known to be Steller sea lion food: Atka mackerel, Pacific cod and pollock.
Named for naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, who sailed to Alaska with explorer Vitus Bering in the 18th century, Steller sea lions are the largest of the “eared seals,” a category that includes all sea lions and fur seals.
The entire population, which ranges from Japan to California but is concentrated in Alaska, was listed as threatened in 1990. Seven years later, the population was divided; the western population from Prince William Sound to the Aleutians, which has had the most dramatic losses, was listed as endangered while the eastern population remained classified as threatened. By 2013 the eastern population had recovered sufficiently to warrant de-listing, but the western population remains classified as threatened and continues to face threats, according to NOAA Fisheries.
After Trump issued the executive order in April of 2015, NOAA Fisheries solicited comments from the regional fishery management councils and other organizations, as well as the general public.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which manages harvests in federal waters off Alaska, responded to the solicitation with 20 recommended regulatory changes. Those included some changes to harvest timing, some changes to allocations among quota holders and some new allowances for record-keeping. A change to Steller sea lion protections was not on the list.
To Oceana, an environmental group focused on marine issues, the language in the NOAA list of recommendations was a bit vague, but any review of Steller sea lion conservation measures “must be grounded in the law and the best available science,” said Lauren Hynes, a marine scientist who is the organization’s North Pacific campaign manager.
“The western distinct population of Steller sea lions remains endangered, and recovery goals have not been met. If anything, more must be done to conserve and recover this vulnerable population and to protect their habitat and prey,” Hynes said by email.
Other Alaska-focused changes in the list of recommendations released Thursday by NOAA Fisheries were some tweaks to sablefish rules.
Trump has already taken other actions that overturn environmental protections to enable more commercial fishing in U.S. waters.
In February, he overturned a fishing ban in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the New England coast. On June 11, he overturned fishing bans in three protected areas in the Pacific, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off Hawaii, the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument near the Mariana Islands and the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument near American Samoa.
