 |
| Researchers Working On Stranded Steller Sea Lion Pup [1] |
Currently, we know some of the issues involved with human interaction with the Steller sea lions. What we don't know, is what caused the major decline of the Stellar sea lion population in the past. There are many different organizations dedicated to researching the potential causes of that decline. What we need to find out is which threats cause the most damage and what combination of these threats is responsible for the decline.
The proposal of my experiment would be to determine what factors led to the population decline in Steller Sea Lions and what could lead to another population decline today. My hypothesis is that over-fishing and pollution are the major factors involved in population decline and that killings by fishermen and predation by orcas have less of an impact. The method of this experiment would be to see what factors are limiting the population today. Also, since the Western Population of Steller sea lions is now growing, we can look at what has changed in their environment since the decline and now.
- Experiment
- Select many different populations of Steller Sea Lions along the west coast of North America.
- Document current population growth rates for these populations and measure local environmental variables such as:
- Pollution level,
- Food availability
- Number of orca whales
- Fishing methods/severity
- Contaminants
3. Record how each factor or combination of factors correlates with population size/rate
The results from this experiment could hopefully help understand what the major factors involved were in the decline of the Steller sea lion population as well as prevent a future decline.
This experiment would be helpful compared to research being done now because it will tell us exactly which factors can do a large amount of damage to a Steller sea lion population. Currently, there is research being done on each factor but there is only speculation as to which factors are the most harmful and in what combination.
This experiment would be helpful compared to research being done now because it will tell us exactly which factors can do a large amount of damage to a Steller sea lion population. Currently, there is research being done on each factor but there is only speculation as to which factors are the most harmful and in what combination.
Good ideas, well presented.. but you should probably go into a bit more detail on how this research would be done, who might fund it, etc. You mentioned earlier that research is currently being done, how does this proposal differ from the work already being done?
ReplyDeleteHow would you perform this experiment? Are there going to be ethical issues with exposing the animals to possible threats and seeing how many die? I feel like there would be a lot of objections to this experiment. Also, it seems like it would cause problems and be difficult to move orcas or keep fish out of an area unless the experiments are being done in captivity. I like the general idea of finding out what is causing the decline, but I think the actual set up of the experiment could use a little tweaking.
ReplyDeleteGood overall idea for an experiment. It'd be good to go into more detail on various parts of the experiment and to make small changes to make clear what you are trying to do.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that there's a decent amount already known from what you've presented but you haven't elaborated on where the information came from or previous experiments? I'm surprised that there's been no modelling at least done on this topic.
ReplyDelete