The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it’s been a deadly year for marine mammals around Skagway, much more so than any other year.
NOAA reports that carcasses of two Steller sea lions and three harbor seals have been discovered since January; one was shot. Public Affairs Officer Julie Speegle said this is an unusually high number, as the database shows only two deaths have been previously recorded in the area since the early 1990s: a Steller sea lion in 2003 then a harbor seal in 2004.
“So the fact that we found five is highly unusual,” she said.
NOAA Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Ron Antaya agreed. He said the deaths are being investigated by agents in the Juneau office. He welcomes input from the community to help solve the mystery.
“One Steller sea lion appears to have died from illness,” NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service’s Aleria Jensen, marine mammal stranding coordinator for the Alaska Region, said in a release. “The other Steller sea lion and the three harbor seals showed signs of trauma to the head indicative of marine mammal-human interaction.”
Jensen was out of the office Monday, but Speegle said a bullet was recovered from one of the seals. Another had head trauma indicative of a gunshot wound, but no bullet was recovered.
Of the four with trauma, three were found washed ashore in the Skagway area while the other, a pregnant sea lion, was found floating in Nahku Bay.
Speegle said the most recent seal was found on June 1 with its head missing. No necropsy is scheduled.
Antaya said the seals and sea lions can only be legally killed or harvested for subsistence purposes in a non-wasteful manner.
“There is never a situation where a fisherman can shoot at or kill a harbor seal or sea lion,” Antaya said. This includes if the mammals get caught in nets or fishing gear. He said fishermen should not try to immediately remove caught animals but call the NOAA Marine Mammal Stranding hotline at (877) 925-7773.
Anyone with information about the marine mammal deaths is encouraged to call the 24-hour NOAA Fisheries Enforcement Hotline at (800) 853-1964 or the local office at 586-7225.
“We’re very concerned,” said Speegle. “We’re just trying to find out more about what may have happened to these animals.”
• Contact reporter Jonathan Grass at 523-2276 or at jonathan.grass@juneauempire.com.
Comments (4)
Add commentgood lord, Please offer a
good lord, Please offer a reward for information leading to a conviction, this is sick stuff. Also sounds like we need enforcement out and under cover patrolling our shorelines.
Alaskans please take the time to get pictures of people you see breaking our laws!
Get the AK# on the side of the boat you see breaking a law, use your cell phone to get a picture if you have to. The new digital cameras are great so carry one. Take pictures of license plates when you see people drinking speeding etc...and turn this stuff into JPD
things have gotten slack around here.
yup
Your right al they were victims of speeders driving an imaginary Ford while chugging a coke a cola
Seal Lion Shootings
I hear a lot of fishermen stories about seal lions. It seems the seal lions are in greater abundance,and have become more competitive for the easy salmon meal caught on a troller's hook,or trapped in a gillnetter's set net. I understand that the seal lions can tell the difference between a pleasure craft,and a troller's craft. Fishermen, have witnessed pleasure crafts, and a troller craft passing seal lions,and the seal lions always follow the troller's craft out to sea,even if hooks are not in the water. When a troller has a fish on, it is becoming more and more a race between the troller and the seal lions to see who will get to the hooked salmon first. Also,fishermen have witnessed seal lions herding salmon towards,and into set-nets. Then it becomes a race between the set-netter and the seal lions to see who will get to the caught salmon first. I absolutely do not agree with shooting animals to waste,and I,m not saying this was the situation with the seals that NOAA found. But, here is what I would like for NOAA scientists to embark on. I would like for NOAA to do an indepth study of the aggressive seal lion to fishermen behavior.It seems the seal lions are learning to feed more and more on a fisherman's catch, the same way bears learn to feed on human garbage,and then turn around and raise more garbage bears. NOAA,ride shot-gun on the trolling ships and see what your "charge" is up to...they are learning bad habits. Of course, this is not all of the seal lions,as some of the seal lion herds stay totally away from human contact. These ones,catch their own fish.
@ourjungle ...........Seal Lions?
Never heard of one, try SEA Lions. You're obviously not from around here, and as you said, are just listening to fish stories.