I was just reading this article that was recently published in the Seattle PI (see below). My first reaction was that it was a bunch of bull and that fishermen don't disturb eagles all that much. After thinking about it some more perhaps a good compromise for our rivers would be to limit sled access to rivers such as the Skagit, Sauk, and Wynoochee since they probably disturb the rivers a lot more than some guy floating down the river in a pontoon boat or most of the bankies. Banning sleds on some river areas could be a good compromise.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/156252_eagles12.html Monday, January 12, 2004
Humans a threat to Skagit bald eagles, biologists fear
By KATHY GEORGE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
ROCKPORT -- Perched atop the bare-branched cottonwoods towering over the Skagit River, the three bald eagles looked as rigid as the national bird emblem on the dollar bill.
It was morning, their prime feeding time. But as one motorboat after another roared by, these birds weren't diving for food. They rarely even moved except to soar between trees, staying high above the fray.
Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
A bald eagle takes flight from its perch atop a tree along the Skagit River. Hundreds of the birds, a threatened species, spend the winter in the area.
"I've seen a bunch of them flying but not feeding," said Carl Nickerson of Anacortes, who arrived here at 7 a.m. yesterday to fish for steelhead.
Yesterday's busy scene full of fishermen and eagle-watching tourists illustrated a trend that has long concerned wildlife biologists. Here on the Skagit, where 500 or more eagle watchers may show up on a sunny day, people are disrupting the birds' feeding.
The question is whether all that disruption affects the survival of these birds, which still are considered threatened with extinction.
Nobody is sure of the answer.
"It's pretty evident that there's some disruption of feeding," said John Grettenberger, an endangered-species supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Lacey.
"It's not the primary threat to the species. But at the same time, we wouldn't want disturbances to increase."
Each winter the Skagit attracts hundreds of eagles, the largest concentration in the lower 48 states. On Jan. 3, for example, 289 bald eagles were counted between Rockport and Marblemount, up from 248 last year.
But a 1998 study found that recreational activities on the river caused a 35 percent reduction in feeding by the bald eagles here.
State wildlife biologists tried tracking some of the eagles after they left the Skagit to find out whether the feeding disturbances prevented them from nesting and raising offspring.
But the migrating birds nested so far away in such remote wilderness that "they actually couldn't answer that definitively," said Don Gay, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the stretch of the Skagit where eagles congregate.
Biologists take some comfort in the fact that the total number of eagles nesting or wintering in the state has grown or remained stable in recent years.
In 1999, the Clinton administration even proposed to take bald eagles off the threatened species list, although that proposal languished.
It's still illegal to hunt, harass or harm a bald eagle. And scaring them away from their food could violate federal regulations that prohibit "significantly" impairing the feeding or breeding habits of threatened or endangered species.
But nobody is arresting the boaters, fishermen or others who unwittingly disturb the birds here.
Given the bald eagle's overall recovery from near-extinction, federal wildlife managers have opted for mostly voluntary protections.
Commercial rafting companies and fishing boats must obtain permits to use the eagles' favorite stretch of the Skagit River between Marblemount and Rockport in the winter. And they may not hit the water until 11 a.m. -- when the birds are done feeding on the salmon carcasses that draw them here.
All others, including non-commercial boaters, are asked to voluntarily stay off the river -- and the sand bars where eagles feed -- until 11 a.m.
Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
Motorboats filled with fishermen head up the Skagit River near the town of Rockport. Wildlife biologists worry that human activity on the river is having a detrimental effect on bald eagles.
Even if everyone fully complied with those restrictions, recreational activities still would cause a 17 percent reduction in feeding by Skagit eagles, according to a 2001 report by Gay of the Forest Service.
Of course, not everyone complies. For example, Gay estimates compliance with boating launch times is about 70 percent. And yesterday, a half-dozen powerboats went grinding by the Rockport bridge from 9:30 to 10 a.m. alone.
Nickerson and his friend, Chad Sahnow, who were fishing on the river's edge all morning, didn't know they were supposed to wait to wade in. They showed up early because "the fish bite a little better in the morning," Nickerson said.
Meanwhile, the volunteers who dole out eagle-watching information at booths next to the river are there to educate visitors, not police them.
It's easy to see why so many people flock to the Skagit River. Yesterday, on a 2 1/2-hour raft trip run by Seattle-based Alpine Adventures, dozens of the noble birds decorated the trees lining the river's green waters.
Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
As a fisherman checks his line, a bald eagle takes flight with the remains of a salmon from the Skagit River near Rockport yesterday. But biologists are concerned that fishermen and tourists lured to the area, which each winter attracts the largest concentration of eagles in the lower 48 states, are disrupting eagles' feedings.
In a heart-stopping scene, an eagle lifted an afternoon snack from a sandy bar at the mouth of Illabot Creek and carried it to a nearby tree, flying close to the raft as if showing off for its admirers.
On many days, rafters can see hundreds of eagles as they float past moss-draped cottonwoods and pines framed by snow-capped mountains. The eagles rest in the trees after feeding.
For now, wildlife managers see no need for tougher restrictions. If steelhead runs attracted much greater numbers of boaters, that could change, said Gay.
"Any time you go out and play in an animal's back yard, there's potential impact," he said. "People need to be mostly aware that just their being out there makes a difference."
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