The Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife began trapping and transferring California sea lions from below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River on Thursday, April 24.
The sea lions, which have been eating lots of huge sturgeon a day — and up to a third of the spring chinook run — will be transferred to a variety of zoos and water parks that have agreed to accept up to 19 animals.
On April 23, 2008, a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted the states permission to begin trapping operations, although it also issued a preliminary injunction preventing the states from killing any sea lions this spring.
In March 2008 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife and Idaho Fish and Game federal authority to remove?through lethal or non-lethal means?California sea lions preying on salmon and steelhead listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Here’s some video:
Ransom says
I am glad to see that the sea lions aren’t going to be killed, but I still have a problems with this issue. Are anglers allowed to keep salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon in this area of the Columbia? Of course they are. Do we have any more right to kill these species than sea lions? It is extremely hypocritical for man to prevent sea lions from killing fish just so we can. We say that sea lion control is essential for conservation, yet we take tens of thousands of fish each year. We created this problem by building the dams that concentrate the fish and allow the sea lions to efficiently feed. The sea lions, like the lines of sturgeon, salmon, steelhead, and shad anglers below the dam, know where the fish are. We can’t fault sea lions for doing the same things we do. I don’t think it’s fair that these wild creatures are now going to zoos (I am not sure if death wouldn’t be a more humane treatment); we should be responsible, high cost and all, for continued trapping and relocation. I am by no means a PETA card holding sea lion lover, I wanna thump every sea lion that has left me reeling in a severed salmon head, but the hypocrisy of this issue stinks…