Friday, March 6, 2009

NOAA recommends killing sea lions at Bonneville Dam

Posted by The Oregonian January 17, 2008 10:58AM

Categories: Green headlines


A federal agency is recommending the killing of as many as 30 sea lions a year at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, where they gather each year to eat migrating spring chinook salmon.

The recommendation from NOAA Marine Fisheries was one of four options, ranging from no action at all to killing many more of the sea lions that prey on salmon. Sea lions and many Columbia River spring salmon runs are protected by federal laws.

The agency will take public comment through Feb. 19.

The alternatives are in a draft environmental assessment issued in response to requests from Oregon, Washington and Idaho to kill predatory sea lions as a means of preserving dwindling salmon runs.

MORE:

Go to the NOAA site to read more about the recommendations

11 comments:

  1. Oh, don't they stink? A cross between BO and rotten fish.

    Anyway, can't they capture and relocate the extra ones?

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  2. They did that before and the sea lions swam back within a few days.

    Yes they are stinky, but cute.

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  3. In fact, dmarks, they set up traps and something like 6 of them died of heat stroke while in the traps.

    At first people thought the sea lions who died had been shot, but the wounds they had were from biting each other. They had to do an autopsy to clear that up.

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  4. You would think there is a better alternative than killing the sea lions. I don't what that is because I have not spent enough time researching the issue but I would hope they can come up with a better solution.

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  5. Mr Shife-- Me too. But I am biased. I've enjoyed seeing my flabby old California friends up here.

    All-- as always, thanks for stopping by!

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  6. Keeping Nature in balance is a tricky proposition. I have a degree in biology and know better than to think that a quick answer is the answer to this problem.

    Everyone needs to eat... the sea lions, the indians, the fishermen, even the salmon.

    Has anyone considered a net across the channel which is large enough for the salmon to squeeze through, but not the sea lions?

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  7. I don't know about that. I do know that our river is a mile wide in places and very deep...with an uneven and rocky bottom. I'm not sure that the fishermen could deal with a navigating around a net either. I will certainly send the suggestion along through some friends at the dam who have more power than I do. Hey... it's a hydro dam... no pun intended. ha

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  8. maybe if we shoot the japanese there'll be enough fish to go around.

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  9. Billy--giggle! Glad you stopped by. I have been stressed and needed a laugh.

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  10. Oh, I'd hate to see them slaughtering the sea lions - they have as much a right to the fish as anyone. I agre that it ought to be off limits for sport fishing until they are replenished. That seems like a good compromise.

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  11. That's one of the reasons we had the Salmon restoration Project in N. California. We were trying to replenish the salmon population. A lot of the salmon there were dying because of horrible logging practices where the salmon couldn't get back to spawn, and so they would die without creating more fry first.

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