106 



Fishery Bulletin 105(1) 



With the slowing of growth on Forrester Island, sev- 

 eral new rookeries were established in southeastern 

 Alaska (Calkins et al., 1999) (Appendix I). Hazy Islands 

 were a substantial haulout in the 1950s (Mathisen and 

 Lopp, 1963), but pup counts increased after they were 

 first observed in 1979 (13% per year, ^2 = 0.76; n = ll; 

 P<0.001). White Sisters developed into a rookery in the 

 early 1990s and counts of pups also increased rapidly 

 (16% per year, r2=0.87; /!=10; P<0.001). In recent years. 

 Graves Rocks and Biali Rocks appear to be developing 

 into rookeries; 175 and 100 pups were counted respec- 



6000 

 5000 

 4000 



3000 



2500 

 2C00 



A Southeastern Alaska 



' I ' ' ' ' I ' ' ' I I ' ' ' ' I 



B British Columbia 



C Oregon 



3000 

 2500 



2000 

 1500 



1000 



— 1 — I — I— 1 — r— 1 — I — p— 1 — r—i — I— 1 —  — 1—1 — >— I — >— 1 — I — 



1970 1975 1960 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 



Year 



Figure 3 



Recent trends in counts of Stellar sea lion iEumetopias 

 jubatus) pups (O) and nonpups (•) on rookeries in (A) 

 Southeastern Alaska, (B) British Columbia, and (C) 

 Oregon. These areas combined account for over 90% of 

 pup production in the eastern population. Survey tech- 

 niques were standardized within each region, but differed 

 among regions. The slopes are all statistically significant 

 (P<0.001), and none differed significantly from the overall 

 rate of increase of 3.1%. 



tively at the two sites in 2005. Growth of these four 

 new rookeries accounted for about 48% of the increase 

 in total pup production in southeastern Alaska during 

 the 1980s, and for about 74% of the total increase since 

 1990. 



In addition to the five rookeries, sea lions use about 

 20 major haulout sites (>50 animals) and several small- 

 er sites in southeastern Alaska on a regular basis dur- 

 ing the breeding season, as well as numerous other 

 sites during the nonbreeding season. During the 2002 

 survey, a total of 6752 nonpups were counted at haulout 

 sites and another 8531 nonpups were counted at rooker- 

 ies (Table 1). 



British Columbia 



There are currently three Steller sea lion rookeries in 

 British Columbia: the Scott Island complex (Triangle, 

 Beresford-Maggot, and Sartine Islands), Cape St. James, 

 and North Danger Rocks. Counts of pups from oblique 

 35-mm format photographs increased from 941 in 1971 to 

 3276 in 2002 (Fig. 3B), representing an average annual 

 rate of increase of 3.2% (r2=0.71; 7i=9; P=0.005), similar 

 to the overall rate observed in southeastern Alaska. 

 However, piecewise regressions provide a better fit to 

 the time series of pup counts, indicating that most of 

 this increase has occurred since the 1980's (/•2 = 0.85; 

 n = 9; P= 0.002). Significant increases in pup production 

 (P<0.005) were evident at all three rookeries (Appendix), 

 but mean rates varied among sites (3.7% at Scott Islands, 

 2.0% at Cape St. James, and 2.7% on North Danger 

 Rocks). Numbers of nonpups on rookeries also increased 

 significantly (7-2 = 0.89; n=9; P<0.001), paralleling the 

 increases in pup production (Fig. 3B). 



Counts on rookeries in British Columbia date back 

 to 1913 (Newcombe and Newcombe, 1914) and indicate 

 breeding populations were historically large (Fig. 4B). 

 Extensive sea lion reduction programs were conducted in 

 British Columbia from 1912 through 1966, and attempts 

 were made to commercially harvest sea lions during the 

 1960s. One major rookery, the Sea Otter Group, was 

 eradicated by intensive control efforts during the 1920s 

 and 1930s. The site was visited each year toward the 

 end of the pupping season and all pups and as many 

 nonpups as possible were killed, and by about 1940 it was 

 no longer used as a rookery. Predator-control kills and 

 commercial harvests in British Columbia continued into 

 the 1960s and impacted all rookeries, and the breeding 

 population was reduced to about 30% of peak levels by 

 the late 1960s (Bigg, 1985). It appears that numbers at 

 Scott Islands have fully recovered from these kills, but 

 numbers at the two other rookeries are still below his- 

 torical peak levels (Appendix). 



Sea lions also currently use 24 major haulout sites (>50 

 animals) in British Columbia on a regular basis during 

 the breeding season, up from 18 sites when systematic 

 province-wide surveys were initiated in the early 1970s 

 (Bigg, 1985). Numbers of animals counted on these sites 

 increased at rate of 4.0% since the early 1970s (r~=Q.&2; 

 «=9; P<0.001), which is not significantly different from 



