CSHJR 44(FSH)-SEA OTTER RESEARCH/ENDANGERED SPECIES    CHAIR SCOTT OGAN called the Senate Resources Standing Committee meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Present were Senators Thomas Wagoner, Fred Dyson, Ralph Seekins and Chair Scott Ogan. Senator Ben Stevens arrived at 5:15. The first order of business to come before the committee was CSHJR 44(FSH). REPRESENTATIVE DAN OGG, sponsor, of HJR 44, said the Southwest Alaska population of Northern Sea Otters has declines as much as 65 percent since the mid-1970s. In responds to this precipitous decline, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed listing the sea otters in the Southwest region as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This bill recognizes that drop. Studies funded by the federal government have found that the of another species, the Stellar Sea lion's decline is not necessarily related to commercial fisheries. This resolution asks the federal government to put $5 million aside each year over the next five years to study this animal over a period in the area of Kodiak. CHAIR OGAN asked how many sea otters were going to get studied for $25 million. "That's a lot of money!" REPRESENTATIVE OGG replied that he didn't know their numbers. SENATOR RALPH SEEKINS asked for an estimate of economic damages that could potentially happen if the reasons for the sea otter decline were not studied. REPRESENTATIVE OGG replied Kodiak Island salmon fishery, presently valued at $25 million, could go away if information didn't show there was no connection between commercial fishing and the decline in sea otters. The Kenai Peninsula has another salmon fishery that the same thing could happen to. Possibly crab fisheries could be taken out. It could all add up to $200 million to $300 million. Pollock fisheries might be affected, because they are farther out, but impacts to the coastal communities that are struggling already could become very serious. SENATOR SEEKINS remarked that he thought the money for a sea otter study would be well spent. CHAIR OGAN asked if sea otters are listed as threatened now. REPRESENTATIVE OGG replied that the Wildlife Service is going to list them as threatened and that is why public comment is being taken on it at this point. It can't be said for certain that commercial fishing doesn't have an impact until information is gathered. They started putting large circles around where the Stellar sea lions live and they'll do the same thing with the sea otters.... It knocked out incredible portions of fisheries and we had to fight to get them back. SENATOR SEEKINS urged that a study seemed to be a much better way of dealing with the decline than the shotgun approach. REPRESENTATIVE OGG explained that the people who studied the Stellar sea lions suggested that $5 million every year for five years would provide enough data for a sea otter study. The study on Stellar sea lions cost $100 million. CHAIR OGAN asked if he envisioned the study being done as government research. REPRESENTATIVE OGG answered that usually the money is funneled through one of the government agencies. The Stellar sea lions study is presently done through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in the Department of Commerce. Contracts are usually picked up by universities. This one would go through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which would decide on the program. Kodiak already has research facilities from the Stellar sea lion study. CHAIR OGAN exclaimed, "There seems to be more money, sometimes, in researching why fishing isn't good than there is in fishing!" REPRESENTATIVE OGG said it seemed like that, but in today's reality, people in the fishing industry understand that without the research they won't be able to fish. CHAIR OGAN said he was concerned about specifying an amount to be spent and would feel more comfortable with language like, "Congress will provide adequate or sufficient funding." He wanted to know if there were other considerations behind focusing the study in Kodiak. REPRESENTATIVE OGG replied that the sea otter population starts at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula and goes down the Alaska Peninsula including Kodiak Island and goes out the chain. One needs to look for research facilities that exist in that area and scientists who work in that field. Those are found in Kodiak; those are the scientists he talked to about what was needed to accomplish this type of study. CHAIR OGAN asked if anyone knew how many sea otters were taken for subsistence hunting. REPRESENTATIVE OGG replied he didn't really know and that those products can't be sold. SENATOR THOMAS WAGONER informed them that the finished products made from sea otter pelts can be bartered or sold, but he said there had been very little hunting of sea otters in Kachemak Bay for several years. He thought Kodiak was a perfect area in which to conduct this research. MS. JULIE DECKER, Executive Director, Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fisheries Association (SARDFA), said she had submitted written comments in support of HJR 44. Research would not only indicate why there is a decline, but the extent of it as well. She suggested adding three whereas clauses that contain language from the Federal Register noticing the proposed listing as threatened as follows: 1. On page 2, line 1, insert: "Whereas information from monitoring programs administered by NMFS indicates that interactions between sea otters and commercial fisheries result in less than one instance of mortality per year within the Southwest Alaska distinct population segment; and" 2. After the above, insert: "Whereas information from the MTRP estimates the subsistence harvest of sea otters from the Southwest Alaska distinct population segment (DPS) averaged less than 100 sea otters per year during the 1990s and the impacts of the subsistence harvest is negligible; and" 3. On page 2, line 4, insert: "Whereas the cause of the decline in abundance of the Southwest Alaska population of the Northern Sea Otter is unknown, although the weight of evidence of available information suggests that predation by killer whales may be the most likely cause of the sea otter decline in the Aleutian Islands; and" 4. On page 2, line 18, insert "and be it further resolved that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the United States Fish and Wildlife Service not list the Southwest Alaska sea otter as threatened until the amount of decline and cause of decline is better understood through intensive research." REPRESENTATIVE OGG responded that Ms. Decker is addressing the Southwest population where the Fish and Wildlife Service has done preliminary studies noticing the 65 percent decline. That's the reason they put up the public notice. He didn't know if the resolution could ask them to not list them as threatened as that is a scientific determination. That is why he is asking for money to get the scientific determination. He wanted to leave the resolution the way it is. CHAIR OGAN asked if this is a decline from an all-time high or from an average number. REPRESENTATIVE OGG couldn't answer that definitively. Some thought the reason for the Stellar sea lion decline is because of extensive whale hunting in the 30s and 40s - that it knocked out a whole segment of prey and the sea lion population filled that void by the 1970s. He speculated that maybe the 1970s was an all-time high of recovery. SENATOR THOMAS WAGONER moved to pass CSHJR 44(FSH) from committee with a zero fiscal note. There were no objections and it was so ordered.