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A federal judge this week gave the go-ahead to kill sea lions feasting on salmon at Bonneville Dam, but a Washington state fishery manager said Wednesday that managers will continue to try to trap and relocate the animals first. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman on Tuesday ruled against the Humane Society of the United States, which sued to block the lethal-take permit issued to state fishery managers earlier this year by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The states want to kill nuisance sea lions that have in recent years taken advantage of a man-made bottleneck to devour imperiled salmon. “We’re...

Heat prostration probably killed six sea lions enclosed within a pair of floating cages near Bonneville Dam a week and a half ago, according to federal authorities. The disclosure on Wednesday lends new insight - while raising new questions - over the puzzling deaths of four California sea lions and two threatened Steller sea lions sometime between 7 p.m. May 3 and the time they were discovered in the floating docks at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, May 4. The National Marine Fisheries Service reported Wednesday that necropsies on all six animals are consistent with death from heat prostration - even though...

 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Humane Society of the United States has reached an agreement with state and federal governments that blocks killing or permanent removal of sea lions in the Columbia River until early 2009.In return, the Humane Society will drop its appeal in federal court against the U.S. Commerce Department and the governments of Oregon and Washington, Sharon Young, the society's field director of marine issues, said Tuesday.A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was to hear a case Thursday that could have led to killing some sea lions at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia...

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Six federally protected sea lions were apparently shot to death on the Columbia River as they lay in open traps put out to ensnare the animals, which eat endangered salmon. State and federal authorities are investigating. The discovery came one day after three elephant seals were found shot to death at a breeding ground in central California. Trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who was at the scene Sunday.

State and federal authorities said they are investigating the deaths of six sea lions found dead at the Columbia River traps. They appeared to have been shot. The bodies of four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found at the traps early Sunday afternoon. There were two California sea lions and one Steller sea lion at each of two traps just below the Bonneville Dam. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and federal investigators are treating the area as a crime scene. Both species of sea lion are federally protected but Oregon and Washington state are...

I 'm with Joyce Kilmer -- "I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree." I'm even with city Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who recently waxed poetical before the Portland City Council on the "incredible" "show-stopping" trees growing in Portland. But before I could recall the last lines of Kilmer's poem -- "Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree!" -- Saltzman went on to say something that's creepy and chilling: "It sometimes pains me to think that we have no ability to control their destiny -- that a private...

The Humane Society of the United States has filed a request for an emergency injunction asking a federal appeals court to block the government from killing protected sea lions at Bonneville Dam. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman rejected a request for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday even though he said the Humane Society might prevail in court with a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the states of Oregon and Washington. The ruling left open the possibility the states could begin killing the sea lions today. But the government and the Humane Society said they did not expect...

PORTLAND -- The Humane Society of the United States, Wild Fish Conservancy and two citizens have filed suit in U.S. District Court to halt the authorized killing of sea lions at the base of Bonneville Dam in the Columbia River. The lawsuit, filed Monday, had been filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., last week but it was withdrawn when the fish conservancy group asked to join it. The National Marine Fisheries Service has granted a request by Oregon and Washington to kill up to 85 animals a year over five years to protect endangered or threatened salmon runs. The...

The hunter may soon become the hunted at Bonneville Dam. Sea lions have in recent years converted the damÂ’s forebay into their own salmon buffet line, but soon they may eat their last meal. Federal authorities last week granted a request by the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho to shoot California sea lions believed to be taking a chunk of salmon stocks that have already dwindled nearly to the point of extinction. The issue pits one creature against another, but it more fundamentally raises questions about humansÂ’ role in trying to strike a balance. Ultimately, itÂ’s likely someone will...

TRAPS, pyrotechnics and beanbags shot at sea lions have failed to deter the annual springtime feast of threatened salmon at a northwestern US dam... The National Marine Fisheries Service authorised Oregon and Washington state officials to first attempt to catch the sea lions that arrive at the base of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and hold them 48 hours to see whether an aquarium, zoo or similar facility will take them. Otherwise, they could be euthanised, along with those that avoid trapping. About 60 of the California sea lions, identified by branding, scars or other markings, were deemed...

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...

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...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — To Columbia River tribes, California sea lions are salmon-gobbling menaces that have outgrown their need for federal protection, threaten tribal livelihoods and fly in the face of treaty rights. Animal rights advocates see them as a politically convenient scapegoat used to explain dwindling salmon runs when the real problems lie elsewhere. On Sept. 4 a broad-based federal task force meets here to make a recommendation to NOAA Fisheries as to whether to allow some sea lions, protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, to be killed to take pressure off salmon runs. In recent years...

Signs emerge of vigilante approach to protected sea lions 4/19/2007, 5:25 p.m. PT By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER The Associated Press    PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The competition between protected sea lions gobbling Columbia River salmon and impatient humans with empty fishing lines has led to vigilante action.A fisherman shot a sea lion who stole a salmon off the line of a fellow angler Wednesday at a popular fishing spot near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers.The sea lion was hit twice but reported alive in the river Wednesday night.Fishermen have complained that the sea lions eat too...

Despite bombs, boats and rubber bullets, dozens of sea lions are continuing to kill salmon near the Bonneville Dam. This month, biologists are trying one last time to scare off the problem sea lions, but if that doesn't work, they may try to kill them. Sea lions could kill as much as 10 percent of this spring's salmon run and biologists say if they cannot get the problem solved soon, the situation could get ugly. The problem is that the salmon are disappearing. An estimated 8,000 salmon will be lost this spring at Bonneville Dam. "The difficult part about it...

ST. LOUIS—Parasites from cat feces are causing deadly brain damage in California sea otters. A combination of toxic chemicals and herpes virus is killing off California sea lions. And toxic algae blooms are contributing to record manatee deaths in Florida. All of these animals live near coastlines, spending a majority of their lives in the same waters people swim and surf in. Their daily cuisines consist of the same foods we serve up in clam shacks and fine seafood restaurants. The difference between humans and these animals, says NOAA spokesperson Paul Sandifer, is that the animals deal with the ocean...

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) A group of raucous sea lions are on the agenda of the Newport Harbor Commission hearing today. Officials are looking for ways to drive away the animals that's causing mayhem ever since they showed up in the harbor in May. Residents say they bark all night long, and the city received a report that a rogue sea lion tipped over a mother and her child in their kayak. One recent weekend, about 15 hefty sea lions managed to sink a 50-foot sailboat and owner Jerry Dunlap had to pay $3,500 to have it dragged up. To...

IRVINE, Calif. - Irvine the sea lion is taking a breather after swimming nearly five miles up a creek channel into the civic center. Her journey was an Orange County distance record for wayward sea lions. Irvine the city is in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. "This is the farthest inland we've ever picked up a sea lion," said Michele Hunter of the nonprofit Pacific Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, where Irvine was taken after her capture. "We have seen some marine animals out in the Back Bay before," Hunter said. "They may have been following some fish or...

ENSENADA, Baja California Despite federal regulations protecting the species, the killing of sea lions in Todos Santos Bay, 25 km. south of Ensenada, has been a long-term phenomena. Because the animals like to eat the same fish that have attracted fishermen and hatchery owners to the area, the sea lions have made many human enemies who have taken out their frustrations by means of violence. But when 26 sea lions were found dead from gunshot wounds or blows to the head during one 15-day period in May, authorities took notice. According to Ricardo Castellanos Percevault of the federal environmental agency,...