Vlad Sokhin/Panos Pictures

Steller sea lions resting on the rocks of Grotto Island in the Kenai Fjords National Park. According to the National Science Foundation (US), Steller sea lion populations declined by over 80% between the late 1970s and early 1990s in the western Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Changes in water temperatures, ocean currents, and other oceanographic variables influenced the survival and distribution of assemblages of species that are consumed by predators such as sea lions.
Melting glaciers and sea ice in Alaska led to the mass migration to the coast of walruses and sea lions in 2015. Usually living and breeding on the ice, the animals were forced to seek refuge on the beach, as the ice was too thin to sustain them, or even absent.