Posted on 01/18/2008 10:41:35 PM PST by SubGeniusX
PORTLAND, ORE. -- A federal agency recommends killing about 30 sea lions a year at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River to keep them from eating salmon and steelhead.
It was among four proposals listed by NOAA Fisheries Service after meetings of a task force last year and requests in 2006 by Oregon, Washington and Idaho to allow removal of some of the animals, which are protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.
At least three upper Columbia River spring salmon runs that pass through the dam are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Sea lions, while protected, are not listed as threatened.
NOAA's recommendation is short of what the three states requested.
An amendment to the 1972 law allows states to get permission to kill identifiable sea lions or seals that have "a significant negative impact" on at-risk salmon and steelhead.
By many estimates, the sea lions devour about 4 percent of upriver spring runs.
NOAA Fisheries has jurisdiction over seals and sea lions and can grant the states' requests under some conditions.
The federal government agreed last January to consider the requests. It plans to take public testimony on the four alternatives through Feb. 19 and make a decision in March.
The sea lions have gathered at the base of the dam in recent years to feed on spring chinook. The fish gather there to climb ladders en route to upriver spawning grounds.
Commercial and sport fishermen and Columbia River tribes with treaty fishing rights for years have urged action against the animals.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
everyone knows that salmon is the favorite seafood of conservatives.
it just figures, doesn't it?
Why only 30?
LOL.
Good. Feed the prisons with seal meat. And I’ll take a pair of slippers.
When was someone allowed into government that had sanity?
Does anyone realize how much money could be raised by putting this out for bids? But no, the government will handle this in a feel good way.
GIANT PING!!!
Indeed! We are spending hundreds of millions to save the salmon runs! The fish must first pass through hundreds of cross river nets set by the local tribes... THEN are herded into the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam where they are easy prey for the seals...insane!
Set a demarcation zone at East Portland. Any seal that passes past that mark should be culled, with bounties placed on their heads! The fur and meat should go to the tribes, or as pissant said, to feed the prisons.
They speculate four percent is eaten by the seals at Bonneville... they won't admit that more than triple that is harvested by the tribes on the way there!
Sanction the Nets... and Cull the Seals!
While they are at it, they should cull the giant herds in SF and Monterey Bays. We are overrun with the beasts and they can’t be touched.
When the libs quit foaming at the mouth over the permitted killings, they’ll no doubt raise arguments over what method should be used to kill them. Then they’ll declare that no method is humane enough.
Hershall’s offspring eh Seattlites?
I’m with #7 but the authorities could make a handsome profit.
Corral a bunch of the seals and charge $100 per person who wants swing a bat at their heads.
No pushing or shoving, please!
But ........ But ............... If they shoot the sea lions won’t polar bears starve?
Added that to my collection!
Dukakis and the technocrats lost the '88 election, right? Yet here we are continually faced with one pull the correct levers, adjust the balances plan after another. This one happens to be for part of the food chain. Off to the side, energy production. Over there, the big one for the economy. Plan after plan after plan to do something about the previous round of plan after plan after plan.
Anytime government magages something it turns out badly for everyone, except for the stupid government bureaucrat who will collect a fat taxpayer check for screwing up everything.
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