209 



in the period from 1976 to 199 l. 64 In the past twenty years 

 Pacific brant geese have declined approximately twenty percent 

 and Bering Sea colonies have declined up to sixty percent. 65 

 Emperor geese rely on the Bering Sea throughout the year and 

 their population has declined seventy percent in the past 

 thirty years. Spectacled eiders and Steller's eiders may have 

 declined up to ninety and fifty percent, respectively, in the 

 past twenty years. Spectacled eiders are listed as threatened 

 species under the Endangered Species Act and the Steller's 

 eider is proposed for similar listing. 



While a variety of explanations have been advanced to 

 account for these radical declines in Bering Sea animal 

 populations, none have proven wholly satisfactory. 66 As 

 Russian scientist Alexander Golovkin has stated, " [i]n a 

 balanced and dynamically stable environmental system, all 

 components of the food web are interrelated and react keenly 

 to changes in population dynamics of any of the 

 participants." 67 Thus, regardless of the explanation, an 



64 Alexander N. Golovkin, Colonial Seabirds of the Pribilof Islands 1, 

 7 (August 1991) (on file with the City of St. Paul). 



65 Letter from Christian P Dau, Wildlife Biologist, United States 

 Department of the Interior, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, to Larry 

 Merculieff, Coordinator, The Bering Sea Coalition (October 26, 1993). 



66 See Swart zman and Hofman, supra , at 1-6. 



67 Golov)cin, supra , at 16. 



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