Posted on 03/18/2008 10:57:07 AM PDT by jazusamo
Federal fisheries managers are giving the go-ahead today for Oregon and Washington officials to trap and, if necessary, kill sea lions that wolf down thousands of salmon at Bonneville Dam every year.
The Associated Press received a copy of the order late Monday. It limits lethal removal to sea lions deemed to have a significant effect on federally protected salmon and steelhead stocks. They must have been seen eating such fish between Jan. 1 and May 31 of any year.
The order says sea lions captured in traps must be held for at least 48 hours to allow a search for a home in captivity before they are euthanized. It identifies about 60 sea lions "authorized for immediate removal."
The voracious California sea lions have become a hot-button issue on the Columbia as they consume the same fish the federal government is spending billions of dollars to save.
Some of the sea lions have become especially brazen, snatching fish from frustrated fishermen and nearly upsetting boats.
State officials, anticipating the federal authorization, said Monday that they are preparing to move ahead with control measures that will step up the pressure on the sea lions. The states have tried hazing the sea lions with noisemakers, with mixed success.
The states, with support from Idaho, applied to the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2006 for permission to kill sea lions that go after salmon.
The National Marine Fisheries Service earlier this year proposed to let state officials trap or shoot as many as 85 sea lions a year, or as many as necessary so they eat no more than 1 percent of salmon passing through Bonneville Dam.
Under the proposal, state officials must only target specific offending sea lions, after first trying to scare them off. State officials expect to remove far fewer than 85 sea lions a year, said Guy Norman, regional director at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
He also said the states have identified zoos, aquariums and marine parks where sea lions trapped in the river may be moved to captivity instead of killing them. He said the states would prefer to relocate the animals to such facilities if at all possible.
"If we could find more homes to relocate them to, that's our number one option," Norman said.
The proposal underwent environmental and public review, attracting more than 3,500 comments, said Garth Griffin, a marine biologist with the fisheries service in Portland. The biggest segment of comments were largely form letters opposing killing of sea lions, with the second biggest group from people -- many of them fishermen -- saying sea lion control is long overdue, he said.
Most anticipated federal approval of lethal sea lion control in the formal decision due today.
"We have a pretty strong sense that it will be a granting of the application for lethal take," said Charles Hudson, a spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
He said the approach to controlling the sea lions is reasonable because it would turn to lethal measures only after other options have been exhausted.
"We have no doubt it will have an immediate benefit to the ability of salmon to migrate safely," he said.
Salmon and sea lions are protected species. But California sea lion numbers are booming, while many Northwest salmon species are struggling. The sea lion population, about 1,000 animals in the 1930s, now numbers about 238,000 along the West Coast. Biologists think the animals have maxed out available breeding sites and habitat.
The number that could be killed under the initial federal proposal is about one one-hundredth of the number that biologists estimate could be removed without undermining the overall population.
Anglers and biologists have grown increasingly frustrated with sea lions that swim up the Columbia to Bonneville Dam, where they feast on salmon gathering to climb fish ladders upriver. Last year, monitoring crews counted sea lions eating more than 4 percent of the salmon run, although biologists suspect they probably ate more.
Close to a third of the salmon eaten by the sea lions were from stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act, the fisheries service said. That's undercutting fish runs battered by dams across their migration routes and by deteriorating habitat.
Hudson said state and tribal biologists estimate sea lions may consume 13 percent to 17 percent of spring chinook salmon passing through the dam.
However, Sharon Young of the Humane Society of the United States said agencies should look to cut back fishing before looking at sea lions as a scapegoat for the struggles of salmon.
"If you're really concerned about the fish, then you don't let more of them get taken," she said.
OR, WA Ping!
feed the prisoners with the meat
This will explode some heads at PETA et. al.
Probably a better meal than they get on the outside.
Sealion Gumbo is great. It’s even better than Spotted Owl Gumbo.
Good start!!!
Fish runs are projected to be lousy this year, this policy needs to expand until we’ve culled 60% of the current over-population.
Absolutely, the animal and enviro wackos have been going ape over this, now they’ll really scream.
‘bout time! Every dock on the Oregon Coast has been taken over by these critters.
History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men......Godzilla! heh :)
I believe CA or OR is talking about no ocean season for salmon this year because of poor numbers.
PING
The wheels turn slowly but they finally got the go ahead for the Bonneville sea lion thinning.
Hell!
Give the seals to the Indian tribes so they leave the elk alone.
How about we send in Godzilla to eat some of the sea lions?! ; )
Well, its a start. A slow, overly bureaucratic, inefficient start, but a start.
They could lower the sea lion population in half, and it would not endanger it.
You’re right, if their numbers were cut in half they’d still be over populated.
LOL! That’s really something.
Simple plan... Whack about 100,000 stupid sea lions and drag them out into open ocean to feed the sharks.
I don't understand how sportsmen in those areas could set on their a$$ and watch all their fish being eaten by a leather bag of guts and do nothing?
That must be why I don't live on the left coast. If it was my fishing going down the toilet, Gang-Green and a few fish cops wouldn't stop me from dealing with the problem!
I guess finally a rich liberal got his stick boat crapped on for the last time! ;D!
BIODIESEL!!!.......
The critters are as thick as thieves out there. They’ve destroyed one of the last Ling Cod populations at the mouth of the Hood Canal. Have to be a diver and be lucky to find any of the turquoise colored delicacy. Every time I take the boat out I see a seal strip a hooked fish.
Not only is the seal population bad for the fish mortality, it hurts the economy. Know the real cost of a sport fished Salmon?
There used to be a lot of news stories about a sea lion that was eating salmon at the Ballard Locks in Seattle. A lot of money was spent to move the sea lion to San Diego or someplace like that but he knew where he had a good thing going and swam all the way back. But I could never figure out how one sea lion could be putting a serious dent in the salmon population.
There may be somrthing to that.
Fish & Game has been playing nice with these sea lions for years. Every year their numbers increase at Bonneville Dam and they gorge on more and more salmon.
I believe when some of them are shot, the rest of them will get the message that they’re not leading a charmed life any longer.
‘Bout damn time!
It's not just one sea lion, I believe they're over a hundred of them at Bonneville Dam.
If the above stats are true that's a heck of a dent and that's just at one spot.
There’s also quite a few at Bonneville that return every year that they have names and/or numbers for, those will probably be the first to go.
“I don’t understand how sportsmen in those areas could set on their a$$ and watch all their fish being eaten by a leather bag of guts and do nothing?”
Apathy reigns.
You must be remembering Herschel.
It's a good thing the federal government spent billions of dollars to save these sea lions. Oh well, it's not really their money.
Had a good friend lived in Brookings over 20 years ago and ocean fished for salmon every year. He and his buddies cussed the seals and sea lions then.
About flippin time!!!!
How long has this been going on?!! Years isn’t it?!!
Face it, sea lions and harbor seals are nothing but large salt water rats. Anywhere you find them in large numbers the place is trashed!!Shoot them and feed the homeless.
I’d have to look it up but I believe it’s been since about 2000. I know it’s been way too long!
“There may be something to that.”
No doubt! There cuteness wears thin when your teakwood deck has been used for tusk and claw sharpening, not to mention a toilet for a one ton beast!
I say send the native tribes down from Alaska and have a ritual slaughter!
I’m sure it is just a matter of PETA explaining to the Sea Lions that the salmon have rights. I think they would be happy to leave them alone then.
“That must be why I don’t live on the left coast. If it was my fishing going down the toilet, Gang-Green and a few fish cops wouldn’t stop me from dealing with the problem!”
It is a good thing you don’t live out here, or you would be in jail after paying some heavy fines.
Great news.
Now we need to do this up the coast from Mexico to Canada.
It is a start, but apparently about 1% of these rats with fins.
We have a small area here in san diego, called ‘Children’s pool” near La Jolla. The Birch family built it years ago for the children of San Diego. They built it so “children “ would have a protected place to go and enjoy the beach. The sea lions and seals took it over and now it’s a sewer!!It’s covered with seals and seal $hit! You can go any day of the week 24 hrs a day and you will find these salt water rats and the two footed kooks that worship them. If you get too close these PETA types will come and chastize you for disturbing thier little gods.
Infuriating!!!! People can’t use the beach because of RATS!!! and the kooks on the left.
Wow I didn’t know Sea Lions went that far up the Columbia
Yes, it’s about 140 miles up the river. They go the extra mile for the easy meal.
$20,000 fine, year in jail.
Sounds like a plan, lol.
“It is a good thing you don’t live out here, or you would be in jail after paying some heavy fines.”
I doubt that very much. The left coast sportsmen only have the problem because they put up with it.
This has nothing to do with the left coast. How many sportsman on the East coast or Michigan for that matter are killing federally protected birds and animals?
Plus a long time loss of hunting and fishing licenses and a lot of service work to repair the “damage”.
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