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Mark Anthony Rodriguez

Dr. Saadi Hanan

Engl 1301   

6 April 2022

Entanglement Life or Death

Ocean life is a beautiful and wonderous part of our world; filled with all kinds of life

from microorganisms to aquatic mammals, and even to the largest of creatures such as the blue

whale, and yet while the oceans and the life in them are truly a remarkable sight with all things

wonderful there always comes something to cause it harm. This is the case for sea lions who are

aquatic mammals and are creatures that bring joy and entertainment to many people who enjoy

marine watching. However, due to man-produced debris that spills into the oceans creatures such

as these are in danger of becoming entangled with all sorts of waste that can cause them harm.

This was made aware by Elizabeth Marina Allyn and Jonathan Joseph Scordino two experts in

how humanity impacts marine life and authors of an article regarding sea lions and the rate of

them becoming entangled in the state of Washington. Their interest began with the population of

“the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus

schauinslandi)” believing that entanglement is the cause of their endangered status. Now, this

article serves to better understand the relationship between entanglement rates and the haul-out

abundance trends of the state of Washington and the Steller and California sea lion population.

While the author’s work is highly credible with multiple grants and approved research methods,
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even backed by numbers and percentages, their focus on credibility and the context of how likely

the entanglement rate is, they lack a sense of feeling which hurts their article.

To show the author’s understanding of the issues that the journal covers they first met

with the National Marine Fisheries Services to review and approve their research and

methodologies to gain access to the “Marine Mammal Protection Act research permits numbered

14326, 13430, and 19430” as well as obtaining the “Special Use Permits that come from the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service” so that they can have access and permission to all land-

based surveys and haul out activities that they conducted within the Flattery Rocks National

Wildlife Refuge. As such with these grants and permits in hand, began their observations which

spanned from the years 2012-to 2018 occurred their primary focus was on the major haul-out

points of the Tatoosh Island, the Bodelteh Islands, Sea Lion Rock, and Carroll Island areas as

these are the most likely areas to provide the best data available. The surveys they conducted

year-round, however for the late spring and even early fall were given extra effort as the

availability of survey days was shortened due to weather conditions and favorable seas. It was

through these surveys that allowed them to not only gather haul-out data but also actively

interacted and counted the individuals that became entangled or showed signs of the previous

entanglement and tallied the total abundance of the sea lions that were encountered. To better

assess these sea lions and the damages caused by the entangled materials, a digital SLR camera

with a lens of 100-400 mm would provide the best quality available.

In addition, the article mentions that after calculating an average rate of entanglement for

the California and Steller sea lions of the northern Washington coast after using the counts of

entangled individuals and the haul-out counts. Their survey proved to be the best during the

times of summer and early fall as these were the times that provided the best entanglement rates
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and aligned for the most favorable weather and sea conditions, and to pair up the use of

entanglement rates came with the use of photo analyses to better assess if “ the entanglement was

active or inactive, identify the entangling material, and record the age and sex of the entangled

individual.” And it was from these that the authors then organized them into separate

demographics ranging from the age of the individuals into adults, pup, juvenile, and unspecific,

the sex of the adults as well as other physical characteristics such as size, shape, and whisker

length as this would help in understanding what material was entangled around them. Now after

identifying the materials that entangled the California and Stella sea lions were then categorized

into nine categories those being packing bands, rubber bands, and microfilaments to name a few

to better interpret the damages these waste materials have caused these creatures the article

portrays the various scaring these materials have done to these poor loveable sea mammals.

As revealed by the article itself the materials that entangle the Steller and California sea

lions are as varied as are the mechanisms of how they become entangled. From the excess

terrestrial and marine pollution to old, derelict, and even active fishing gear as these materials are

known to loop around the neck of the creature as well as sharpened edges that can embed

themselves into the sea lion’s skin pose a high risk of being tools of entanglement. However, the

most common and likely device that is the cause of entanglement as stated in the article “Packing

bands and rubber bands are likely encountered passively as debris” as well as possible derelict or

active fishing gear encounters with monofilament line, net fragments, and even rope. The study

objective suggests is that a better way to characterize the various rates and causes of sea lion

entanglement within the northern state of Washington as well as evaluate the exact occurrence of

these local entanglements and the haul-out abundance trend. First, the study used previous study

methods stating that packing bands and netting would be the most prevalent ways for sea lions to
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become entangled. This data was gathered through an annual occurrence of packing bands

entanglement and compared to local surveys from beachside debris that were first conducted by

the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary or the OCNMS to try and discern any kind of

patterns in the material availability. This general analysis was conducted through the years 2012-

2017 which was a total of 1,548 beach debris surveys that spanned the Olympic Coast and

covered seventeen beaches and the results from these surveys were that the correlation between

the proportion of packing bands entanglements matched the beach debris found by the OCNMS

during that time.

Beautiful oceans full of life so mysterious to us with such wonderous microscopic

organisms, to mammals who thrive in the ocean blue to finally breathtaking gigantic behemoths,

however, while many enjoy the sights of these amazing creatures, always comes a threat to ruin

that which we hold dear. With litter, plastics, microfilaments, all man-made debris that has

leaked out into their beautiful blue undersea world, and the perceived lucky ones such as the sea

lions are not safe even on land. As due to the amount of old derelict litter can cause the bundles

of entertainment to become entangled with scars going throughout their bodies, and while this

issue was brought under closer observation by the work of Elizabeth Marina Allyn and Jonathan

Joseph Scordino their primary focus was to determine through their research, data, and

photographs if there was a correlation between sea lions and the entanglement rate of them. It

held a high stance with the amount of work to prove the extremely high rate, but their lack of

character in response to the damages that the local sea lions receive takes away from their

overarching goal.