Written by Emma Pinard
On Friday March 13th, Dr. John Maniscalco, one of our Research Scientists at the Alaska SeaLife Center, took myself and two others out to one Steller sea lion haulout near Cape Resurrection in Resurrection Bay, Seward, to collect Steller sea lion scat.
Yes, you read that correctly… we collected Steller sea lion poop off of this rocky isle, where Steller sea lions commonly haul out. It was a smelly job, but such an exciting opportunity that we got to help with!
I absolutely love conducting field research. We literally jumped off of a boat onto slippery rocks covered with barnacles, climbed and scaled to get to the top of the Steller sea lion haulout, all while having to keep steady footing while wearing these ginormous mustang suits.
Once we made the jump, we got to work scooping the Steller sea lion feces into ziploc bags. I want to give a huge shoutout to Captain Joanna as well, with Seward Ocean Excursions! She did a wonderful job dropping us off and picking us up, and navigating the safest drop off and pick up location from this haulout. She was an essential component to this successful day!
This experience with Dr. John was truly once in a lifetime, and one I will never forget for so many reasons. The entire afternoon out at Resurrection Bay was so beautiful, the sun was shining bright on this winter day. It was warm compared to the temperatures we were dealing with all winter, but it was still around 25 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds at around 10 knots.
One great thing about those bright orange mustang suits you see us in is that they are designed to delay hypothermia if someone falls into the water. These thick and buoyant suits also did an excellent job at keeping us warm out of the water.
On the other hand, these bulky and tight suits also made it extremely difficult to jump off the bow of the boat, straight onto the rocks. With the waves crashing onto the shore, rocking the boat, you really have to time your jump to land on the driest and flattest spot of the rock. Once you’ve made it, you scale up to the top wearing Xtratuf boots and carrying all of the equipment.
This was quite the humbling experience, just navigating this extra level of difficulty that field research often requires.
My favorite part about this experience, though, was Dr. John telling us to not step in any Steller sea lion scat as we were scaling up and around the rocks to do the collections. His main concern was not to drag that foul substance back on our charter boat, and limit the contamination on our boots that we might bring back to Seward, but I had to laugh when I realized that the scat was literally all over the rocks. Imagine me looking down at these rocks, tiptoeing the best that I can, to step in the least amount of scat as possible. It was quite challenging, but thankfully it did get easier, and I got more confident moving around just a few minutes in.
Once we made it to the top of the haulout, the trowels and ziploc bags were dispersed and we started to look for the best Steller sea lion scat to scoop. We wanted to try and get as many individual scat samples as possible, so we had to really focus on the color of the scat and the texture of it, to keep the samples as consistent and individual as possible.
Never in my life have I thought this intricately about picking up poop. We were out on this rookery for about an hour, until we had more than 30 samples to bring back for cleaning and analyzing. All of these samples were placed into a larger trash bag that was tied off and labeled with the date and location, to be stored in the freezer until it is time to go through this process. This double bagging was not enough to conceal the terrible stench of this scat though… so we had to deal with that for the rest of the day.
Even though I will probably continue mentioning the pungent smell of the haulout on this day, it truly was such a wonderful experience. I had a great time experiencing this remote area of Resurrection Bay and connecting to nature, while conducting field research. I mean, look how proud I was of my scat samples!
Now that you have heard a bit about my experience collecting these samples in the field, you may be wondering why we would go through all the trouble to gather Steller sea lion scat in the first place? Why are our scientists interested in analyzing it?
Dr. John Maniscalco, who helps lead the longest-running research project here at the Alaska SeaLife Center, focuses on Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) behavior, diet, and population dynamics. Since 1998, he and Pam Parker have been studying and observing this species across several haulouts in the Resurrection Bay area, but most notably at the rookery on Chiswell Island.
This work began in response to a dramatic population decline. Since the 1970s, the western population of Steller sea lions, which includes the individuals living west of 144°W longitude, has dropped by roughly 80%. Despite ongoing efforts, that population has yet to recover and remains vulnerable to disruptions. These Steller sea lions are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and are classified as “depleted” under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. With about 70% of the global population found in Alaska’s waters, continued monitoring of this species is critical to ensure long-term species survival.
To do that, our researchers have been utilizing non-invasive methods, including remote video monitoring and scat collections. Analyzing scat offers valuable insight into what these animals are eating, and over time will help build a more clear picture of how diet may be influencing their survival and population trends. This question became even more pressing after a major marine heatwave impacted the Gulf of Alaska between 2014 and 2016, known as “The Blob”. This warming event disrupted ecosystems across the region, including significant declines of schooling fish, which is a key food source for these sea lions. With this phenomenon expected to happen again in the near future, our researchers secured funding to collect sea lion scat to better understand potential changes in diet before, during, and after the next warming event. This will build our knowledge on the effects of prey on the nutrition of the Steller sea lions, and whether the differences could play a role in limiting population recovery. Here is where you can read much more about this research: Changes in the overwintering diet of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in relation to the 2014 – 2016 northeast Pacific marine heatwave – ScienceDirect.
This is ultimately why we collect scat. It is not glamorous. It is smelly, cold, and sometimes logistically challenging, but it is one of the most effective and ethical ways to learn more about this endangered species without too much disturbance. As an added bonus, we even were able to do some housekeeping for them on this haulout as well! By taking some of their scat, we left that haul out location a little bit cleaner than we found it.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This research was conducted under Federal Permit issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (No. 27408).
