Were pinnipeds the (only) cause? No, but they did have an increasing impact while managers responded both too slowly and with insufficient incremental restrictions on both commercial and recreational harvest.

But we are where we are so what is restricting recovery? The resource has to maintain the greatest possible reproductive potential and that potential is clearly being impacted by pinnipeds - especially Stellar sea lions.

When we look to recovery efforts for sturgeon and other long-lived species with haphazard reproductive success we need to be both willing and able to address all factors limiting that recovery to include but not limited to control of predators.