Human Interactions
The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped the sea and its animals. They often depicted South American sea lions in their art. Two statues of this species are the symbol of the city of Mar del Plata.
Indigenous peoples of South America exploited this species for millennia and by Europeans around the 16th century. The hunting has since gone down and the species is no longer threatened. The species is protected in most of its range. Numerous reserves and protected areas at rookeries and haul-out sites exists for the sea lions. Despite this, protection regulations are not effectively enforced in much of animal's range.
The population estimate is 265,000 animals. They are increasing in Argentine Patagonia, but are declining in Chile and Uruguay. Many sea lions of the Peruvian population died in the 1997/1998 el Niño. They still are killed due to the sea lions' habits of stealing fish and damaging fishing nets. Sea lions in the port of Mar del Plata have been found with toxic chemicals and heavy metals in their systems. The overall population of sea lions is considered stable.
Read more about this topic: South American Sea Lion
Famous quotes containing the words human and/or interactions:
“Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise of Human Nature. It fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction, as even to excite a murmur among the zealots.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)