Unalaska, AK – Today, the conservation groups Oceana and Greenpeace filed a motion to intervene in lawsuits involving Steller sea lion protection. If accepted, the motion would make the groups a party alongside the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is being sued over its biological opinion of the endangered western stock of sea lions.

That biological opinion resulted in the closures in the Western Aleutian Island for the Atka mackerel and Pacific cod fisheries. In an effort to overturn this rule, the State of Alaska filed a lawsuit challenging this federal regulation. The Freezer Longliner Coaltion and the head-and-gut fleet have also filed nearly identical suits. Oceana and Greenpeace are so far the only groups that have petitioned to intervene in these three lawsuits on either side.

Michael LeVine is Pacific senior counsel for Oceana. He says that Oceana wanted to participate in these lawsuits to offer a scientific perspective.

"The broad-based and ideological attacks on that rule and the science underlying it by the State of Alaska and the Seattle-based fishing industry bore a response," says LeVine. "And we are involved to ensure that the best science is brought to the table in defense of those actions.

Before NMFS released its biological opinion, these conservation groups had suggested that insufficient protections for the Steller sea lions could prompt them to file a lawsuit against the federal government. The group had successfully done this before in 1998, resulting in a decision from a federal district court that determined that NMFS had not done enough to protect the species.

When the BiOp was made public, Oceana and Greenpeace offered tentative support for the document. Now, they are working on the same side as NMFS, even though they still think that more needs to be done to help restore the population of Steller sea lions.

"We are still of the opinion that the federal government needs to do more to help that species recover," says Warrenchuk. "At this time, though, the immediate needs was for triage - for some immediate action in the western Aleutians."

Earthjustice is representing both Oceana and Greenpeace. The environmental law firm also participated in earlier litigation involving Steller sea lions that took place between 1998 and 2003.