Vancouver Aquarium Presents Introduction: Over about the last 30 years, Steller sea lions have declined about 80% in Alaska, where most Steller sea lions are found, and the research here at the Vancouver Aquarium is part of a huge international effort to try to figure out what might be wrong with Steller sea lion populations. Steller Sea Lion Research Project Andrew Trites: We’re collecting fecal samples to determine what the animals in this area are eating. This is part of the growing population and we’re trying to determine what’s different. Is it something that they’re eating that makes them a healthier population? And we want to compare it to regions of Alaska where Steller sea lions are declining. Peter Olesiuk: So this ah, here we are on North Danger. It’s one of the three breeding rookeries in British Columbia where pups are born. And ah, we’re about a month passed the peak pupping season so most of these pups are oh, one to two months old. So, it’s particularly important to know what the animals at rookeries are feeding on. These females are tied to this site. The pups are too young to swim and so they have to forage locally and come back and nurse the pups. The non-breeding animals at haulout sites are free to wander up and down the coast and take advantage of prey wherever they may be found. But these animals, they come back, these females are returning to the rookeries from which they were born to reproduce and so what’s important here is that they have a dependable food supply that’s available every year. Andrew Trites: In British Columbia we’ve been finding that the animals here have an energy-rich diet. It’s quite diverse, but we’re finding a lot of species such as herring, sand lance, even sardines are showing up in their diet. They also eat some of the low energy fish: it’s part of a mixed diet. But overall they are getting higher energy per average meal. Scat research helps us to identify which food sources are most abundant and important to Steller sea lion survival. |