Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) management plan: chapter 5

• Previous page
• Table of contents
• Next page

Strategic Environmental Assessment

A strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is conducted on all SARA recovery planning documents, in accordance with the Cabinet Directive on the Environmental Assessment of Policy, Plan and Program Proposals. The purpose of a SEA is to incorporate environmental considerations into the development of public policies, plans, and program proposals to support environmentally sound decision-making.

Management planning is intended to benefit species at risk and biodiversity in general. However, it is recognized that management plans may also inadvertently lead to environmental effects beyond the intended benefits. The planning process based on national guidelines directly incorporates consideration of all environmental effects, with a particular focus on possible impacts on non-target species or habitats. The results of the SEA are incorporated directly into the management plan itself, but are also summarized below.

Through the development of this plan numerous factors that jeopardize or have potential to jeopardize the management of this population were evaluated and are presented. Principal among the anthropogenic factors or threats are competition with fisheries and chemical contaminants. Environmental variability limiting prey availability is also of concern in terms of long-term impacts to population health. In some cases these factors threaten the populations; in other cases they affect the designated habitat. It was concluded that some threats can be mitigated through the use of existing legislation, policies and programs and, in fact, there are numerous examples of mitigation measures that are currently employed. However, in other cases the threat and/or the potential mitigation measure(s) require further research or evaluation before recommendations on specific actions or activities can be formulated. The general type of research, evaluation and approaches for mitigation are presented in this management plan.

Through the course of implementing actions, specific activities for management, recovery and mitigation will be evaluated and detailed for these populations along with an evaluation of effects and costs for each activity or measure. Therefore, taking into account the general nature of the recommendations for new mitigation to manage this population and that many of the recommendations to protect habitat fall under existing legislation and policies, this plan will not entail any new significant adverse environmental effects.