174 



Since the mid-1970s, Bering Sea populations of Northern 

 fur seals, Steller sea lions, harbor seals, and several 

 species of fish-eating seabirds and sea ducks have all 

 experienced substantial, unexplained declines in their number 

 indicative of an ecosystem-wide injury. The Steller sea lion, 

 now classified as a threatened species under the Endangered 

 Species Act ("ESA"), 1 has declined from more than 100,000 

 animals in the 1970s to only 35,000 today. Since the late 

 1950s, the number of Northern fur seals has been reduced from 

 about 1.8 million to about half that amount, and the species 

 is now classified as depleted under the MMPA. 2 The Bering 

 Sea/Gulf of Alaska harbor seal population is also experiencing 

 a dramatic decline, and ESA listing may be forthcoming. 

 Seabird populations have also been impacted, with some 

 colonies of murres and kittiwakes reduced by as much as fifty 

 percent in the period from 1976 to 1991. Spectacled eiders, a 

 large-bodied sea duck, have also declined drastically since 

 the 1960s and are listed as threatened. The wintering area of 

 Spectacled eiders is not know but is probably in the Bering 

 Sea near the ice edge. Heavy metal contaminants are also 

 beginning to appear in substantial levels in walrus meat and 

 other marine wildlife, raising concerns that marine pollution 

 is affecting the health not only of living marine resources 



^o c.f.r. S 17.11. 

 2 50 C.F.R. S 216.15(c). 



(19653-O0O1/DA94O590.06O) -4- 



