Efforts by Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) to waive the Endangered Species Act (ESA) have failed. The endangered Steller sea lions, while still victims from large-scale, intensive trawl fishing, are no longer victim to a hostile effort from Stevens to suspend federal environmental laws for the sake of industrial fishing special interests.

A federal judge has dissolved an injunction that restricts trawl fishing in the Steller sea lion's critical habitat following the release of a Biological Opinion on December 1, 2000, by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The National Marine Fisheries Service released its long-awaited Biological Opinion addressing the effects of the North Pacific federally-managed groundfish fisheries on endangered Steller sea lions in Alaska.

The ban on trawl fishing in critical habitat for endangered Steller sea lions, ordered last month by a federal court in Seattle, is set to take effect at noon Pacific time August 8th.