NATURE | A Mystery in Alaska | Are Fisheries Guilty? | PBS

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In the 1970s, the pollock industry in Alaska expanded to become the largest fishery in the world. Around the same time, sea lions began to disappear. Despite other possible factors, many people thought the fisheries had been caught with the smoking gun. After a July 2000 ruling by the Federal District Court, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that it would close all fishing of pollock, Pacific cod, and Atka mackerel in a large part of the sea lions’ critical habitat. But what were the costs of this decision? And is the solution to disappearing Steller sea lions really that simple?

NATURE’s “A Mystery in Alaska” airs on PBS Sunday, August 24 at 8 p.m. (check local listings), part of the 26th season of the Peabody and Emmy award-winning series produced by Thirteen/WNET New York for PBS. Major support provided by Canon U.S.A. Inc., Toyota, SC Johnson, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For more information, visit

Channel: Pets & Animals
Uploaded: August 19, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Author: PBS

Length: 00:03:41
Rating: 4.30
Views: 2451

Tags: alaska cod conservation fisheries lions mackerel marine national nature pbs pollock sea service steller wnet

Video Comments:
unholyiguana (August 23, 2008 at 5:40 pm)
I'm from the northwest...all this fish hype and demand about it's supposed miracle cures in the media is hurting our wild life!
freshduckk (August 21, 2008 at 7:25 am)
an area the size of the continental US is dredge fished each year. You say the problem has been handled. Our children shall starve for our ignorance.
GotThatPMA (August 20, 2008 at 6:47 am)
GO Vegan !!!!!!!!
7dr7dan7 (September 23, 2008 at 12:45 am)
Meat is good in small doses. We abuse our consumption of meat.
JMHamilton1 (August 20, 2008 at 4:35 am)
I apologize after looking at the video again, this problem has been handled. Good job Green Peace.
JMHamilton1 (August 20, 2008 at 4:26 am)
Thank you for sharing this with me. It seems like if something dose not happen to this help both sides of the problem them what we see as something small is going to become a very big problem.