Relocation of salmon-eating sea lions halted

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Relocation of salmon-eating sea lions halted

Officials are at least temporarily halting the sea lion-trapping program they launched last month at the Bonneville Dam after someone fatally shot six sea lions while they were trapped.

Kids at the Bonneville fish ladder in the '80s
Photo/Washington Department of Tourism

The sea lion captures were launched to reduce the number of endangered salmon eaten by sea lions at the dam on the Columbia River. The decision came a few hours ago, a day after the discovery of the bodies four California sea lions and two Stellar sea lions.

Federal and state authorities are investigating the shootings. It's unclear if or when the trapping program will be relaunched, according to a press release issued this afternoon by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife that quotes the agency's Guy Norman:

In light of yesterday's incident, the states are focusing their efforts on assisting the investigation and have suspended capture operations at Bonneville Dam until further notice.

Both species are protected under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. Only the California sea lions were covered under a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service that allowed the removal of up to 85 sea lions to marine theme parks.

Recall that another sea lion died after it was sedated for a health exam last week in Tacoma.

Six other captured sea lions have been taken to SeaWorld's Orlando, Fla., and San Antonio, Tex.

Whoever shot these animals is in deep doo-doo. First, they may face a fine of up to $20,000 and up to a year in jail for each killing, according to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Then they're also on the hook under the Endagered Species Act, under which the Stellars are protected. ESA penalties could range up to a $100,000 fine and a year in jail.

It looks like these California sea lions are expanding their population -- I'm still trying to learn the reasons -- and have figured out how to get an easy meal where the fish congregate so they can swim up the fish ladder. Problem is, many of these are federally protected salmon, including the battered spring chinook runs.

Federal officials say last year the sea lions took 4 percent of the returning spring chinook -- and that's just in the area immediately visible to observers at the dam.

As we've mentioned before, the Humane Society of the United States is challenging the whole shootin' match.

Posted by at May 5, 2008 6:06 p.m.
Categories: Marine mammals, Salmon

Comments

#125357

Posted by unregistered user at 5/5/08 6:39 p.m.

I call it taking the law into their own hands. This is the same as a lynching. i hope they are caught and convicted.

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#125377

Posted by unregistered user at 5/5/08 7:28 p.m.

I am sickend by what happened to the sea lions, who does that? who shoots innocent animals? and what other sick acts do they carry out on a daily basis? I don't understand why the sea lions can't stay where they are after all they are where they belong they are not shooting innocent people or molesting children or robbing banks they are eating salmon thats what they eat let them eat salmon and leave them alone what is happening in this world where a marine mammal can't eat fish???

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#125380

Posted by Reality Check at 5/5/08 7:33 p.m.

Federal officials say last year the sea lions took 4 percent of the returning spring chinook....WoW! and because of that we trap and we lawfully shoot them? Thats right folks there were some shot last year by individuals hired by federal fish and wildlife according to a local person that claims to be one of the shooters.
A whole 4% unbelievable, that they expect me to believe that sea lions are devastating the Salmon population.
Offshore netting by commercial fisherman and ocean current temperatures are the blame for salmon not returning to spawn in Washington waters.
Bet you can't get the biologists to agree on that one or the tree hugging tear out the damns enviropsychosomatics.

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#125910

Posted by unregistered user at 5/6/08 9:11 p.m.

...the dynamics are simple for those who don't understand the significance of biological statistics. A female salmon produces 2,000 to 5,000 eggs (depending on the species) for the sole bottom-line purpose of creating two adult salmon - one boy and one girl - who will return several years down the road to perpetuate the species. Predation on declining salmon stocks by sea lions at Bonneville Dam, a risk that didn't even exist 10 years ago, has an impact, even if it is the Humane Society's seemingly measly pearl-clutching "4 percent".

To put it in human terms: I'm your boss and I just decided to reduce the number of dollars (thing returning salmon) in your pay check by 4%. Next year I'm going to reduce that already reduced number of dollars by 4.9 percent (this accounts for this year's predation on your salary and any increase in the predator population) and I will decrease your salary commensurately over the next several years. Somewhere down the road we can sit down and discuss how you feel about "4 percent".

I'm neither pro-dam or pro-harvest or pro-anything else on this issue. I'm pro-salmon as regards the role that those species play as an established part of aquatic ecosystems. I AM, however, anti-sea lion, as well as anti-advocate when it comes to efforts to sustain predator populations far outside of their normal range of distribution. I lived for many years near Bonneville Dam and know that the advent of resident sea lion populations is a recent phenomenon.

Jack K.

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