ANCHORAGE - A count of Alaska's Steller sea lion pups indicates the state's two populations are headed in different directions for recovery.

Pups in the eastern population, living along Alaska's Panhandle, are thriving.

"The eastern stock has met its recovery criteria," said Lowell Fritz, a biologist at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. The population may even be close to removal from the threatened species list, he said.

The western population, from Prince William Sound to the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea, continue to struggle.

"We expected to see the increased Steller sea lion numbers in southeast Alaska again," said Doug DeMaster, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. "The mixed results in the western population, however, indicate that some areas have improved in numbers while others continue to decline, especially the western Aleutian Islands."

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