Data Management Plan

Critical habitat for the Western DPS of Steller sea lions includes:(a) Alaska rookeries, haulouts, and associated areas. In Alaska, all major Steller sea lion rookeries identified in Table 1 and major haulouts identified in Table 2 and associated terrestrial, air, and aquatic zones. Critical habitat includes a terrestrial zone that extends 3,000 feet (0.9 km) landward from the baseline or base point of each major rookery and major haulout in Alaska. Critical habitat includes an air zone that extends 3,000 feet (0.9 km) above the terrestrial zone of each major rookery and major haulout in Alaska, measured vertically from sea level. Critical habitat includes an aquatic zone that extends 3,000 feet (0.9 km) seaward in State and Federally managed waters from the baseline or basepoint of each major rookery and major haulout in Alaska that is east of 144° W. longitude. Critical habitat includes an aquatic zone that extends 20 nm (37 km) seaward in State and Federally managed waters from the baseline or basepoint of each major rookery and major haulout in Alaska that is west of 144° W. longitude.(b) California and Oregon rookeries and associated areas. In California and Oregon, all major Steller sea lion rookeries identified in Table 1 and associated air and aquatic zones. Critical habitat includes an air zone that extends 3,000 feet (0.9 km) above areas historically occupied by sea lions at each major rookery in California and Oregon, measured vertically from sea level. Critical habitat includes an aquatic zone that extends 3,000 feet (0.9 km) seaward in State and Federally managed waters from the baseline or basepoint of each major rookery in California and Oregon.(c) Three special aquatic foraging areas in Alaska. Three special aquatic foraging areas in Alaska, including the Shelikof Strait area, the Bogoslof area, and the Seguam Pass area.ESA timeline:Steller sea lions were originally listed (55 FR 49204, November 26, 1990) under the ESA throughout their range and critcal habitat was designated in 1993 (58 FR 45269, August 27, 1993). The critical habitat designation was amended (59 FR 30715, June 15, 1994) to correct data errors in Table 2 (Major Steller Sea Lion Haulout sites in Alaska) to Part 226 in the CFR.Steller sea lions were reclassified and listed as 2 DPSs: the Western DPS and Eastern DPS (62 FR 24345, May 5, 1997).The Eastern DPS of Steller sea lions was delisted (78 FR 66140, November 4, 2013). In the delisting final rule, NMFS clarified that the 1993 critical habitat designation remains in effect for the Western DPS of Steller sea lions.

Process Steps:

• 2007-07-31 00:00:00 - Data creation process - 2007 Alaska sites west of 144 degrees W only. SSL_226_Critical_Habitat_AK.shp (NAD_1983_Alaska_Albers) The 131 sites from PART 226 - Designated [SSL] Critical Habitat as included are 20nm buffers from either points or lines. Points are small rookeries or haulouts. Lines are larger rookery/haulouts that follow the shoreline at mean lower low water. See 226/223 for additional information. Since these points were identified before the advents of GPS units and unclear datums, some sites sit off in open water - as far as a 1/4 mile from the projected coastline. The intent of making the points and lines shapefile was to follow 226 as close as possible. When 226 could not be followed due to a line that was supposed follow the shore at mean lower low water (when the points defining the start and end point of line was in open water), the intent of the regulation was followed as closely as possible. This was done in coordiation with the AKRO PRD SSL Coordinator. SSL CH Foraging Areas overlap 20nm CH.
• 2009-04-14 00:00:00 - Data creation process 2009 - Oregon sites only. StellerSLionCritHabAll4OR.shp (NAD_1983_Albers) In the Code of Federal Regulations (50 CFR Part 226), the Appendix Table 1 to Part 226 - Major Steller Sea Lion Rookery Sites provides latitude / longitude basepoints along with the region and site names for the Steller sea lion rookeries used for critical habitat designations. However, the coordinates listed did not match up accurately with the data delineations from a number of sources for those rookery sites or the rocks or islands on which they are sited. Therefore, rather than using those basepoints to develop this data set, more accurate data was used to represent Pyramid Rock near Rogue Reef, and Long Brown Rock and Seal Rock, both in the vicinity of Orford Reef. The Pinniped Haulout data from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (2007) was used to locate the rookeries themselves. The Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge Boundary data from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2004) was used to delineate the shoreline of these islands and rocks. These 2 data sets were in agreement in that the rookeries were located within the shorelines of the islands / rocks. A 3,000 foot buffer was generated around the shorelines of these 3 islands or rocks to represent the critical habitat.
• 2016-10-14 00:00:00 - Data creation process 2016 - California sites only. StellerSLionCritHab_OR_CA.shp (GCS_North_American_1983) California sites appended to the Oregon data and shapefile renamed.
• 2020-05-14 00:00:00 - OR and CA source data converted to NMFS ESA critical habitat national standard 2020. StellerSLionCritHab_OR_CA.shp (GCS_North_American_1983) geographic transformation -> SeaLionSteller_WesternDPS_19930827 (GCS_WGS_1984). Geometry was not edited, attributes were edited. Copied metadata from source file and filled in additional metadata from final rule. Combined old fields Region, Site_Name, AreaType into new field Unit. Edited Units for clarity, to match final rule, and to provide more accurate feature labels.
• 2020-10-23 00:00:00 - Data creation process - Alaska sites east of 144 degrees W only. Southeast Alaska features were copied from Alaska Region's REST service https://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/arcgis/rest/services/ESA_data/MapServer/6. Original source shapefile unknown.
• 2021-05-25 00:00:00 - All AK source data converted to NMFS ESA critical habitat national standard 2020.
• 2021-06-16 00:00:00 - AK data merged with OR/CA feature class (SeaLionSteller_WesternDPS_19930827) and renamed to SeaLionSteller_WesternDPS_19940615 because a technical amendment was found. Merge was necessary to follow main gdb business rule "each listed entity has a single ch feature class." Edited Unit values by filling in "Island" for "I." Edited the attributes (FRN, Publication Date, Effective Date) for 10 features that had data amended in 1994. CFR notes: the 1999 amendment (64 FR 14067, Mar. 23, 1999) only changed the CFR section number for the Steller ch designation, the 1994 technical amendment (59 FR 30716, June 15, 1994) changed haulout data in Table 2 (pg 30715 says "The technical amendment revises regulations by changing the name of one designated haulout site from Ledge Point to Gran Point and by correcting the longitude and latitude of 12 haulout sites, including Gran Point. The purpose of this action is to correct errors in the published regulations.") Note for future data development: In AK, there is a "3,000 ft landward zone" that's missing from the spatial data for Forrester Island and all the islands within the 20 nautical mile buffer. Flag: review Hazy Islands geometry.