Salmon + Sea Lions > Feds
Mon, Apr 28, 2008
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Salmon in the
State agents began trapping sea lions to get them away from their endangered prey. Why were they trapping the lions? Because the courts wouldn’t authorize shooting them.
The sea lions are also protected by federal law. However, the particular law that protects sea lions has a loophole allowing them to be killed or removed by court order. The mammals were trapped because of the ruthless efficiency with which they were hunting salmon at the base of the Bonneville Dam; an obstacle which the fish understandably have problems working around.
Two of the eight trapped on the first day were released in the ocean several miles away.
Stella sea lions are endangered: most are in the process of finding their way into zoos (Sea World is taking 12).
Fishermen and conservationists, oddly on the same side of a debate, claim that the lions annually eat just over 4 percent of the seasonal Chinook Salmon catch. The Humane Society, perhaps the only organization here to note that the issue is the dam, not the sea lions, has claimed that the “designated catch” population has increased by a third this year.
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April 29th, 2008 at 1:02 am
the hyperlinked article is of a mind that these are in fact California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), and not Steller’s (Eumetopias jubatus). the former are not endangered (though, like all marine mammals in the U.S., they are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act), while the latter most certainly are.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Indeed, the sea lions being targeted are California sea lions, not Steller sea lions. (Also, the mouth of the Columbia, where the non-targeted sea lions are being taken, is more than 100 miles from the dam, not “several miles.”) The other sea lions are going away to captivity for now. Finally, “environmentalists” are not on the same side as fishermen in this debate. On the contrary, many, many environmental groups and individuals are very much opposed to this, because it is ridiculous. There is no sound science whatsoever to indicate that salmon can be “protected” by killing a naturally co-evolved predator. Sea lions and salmon have evolved together in the Columbia river habitat for more than ten thousand years. Salmon were nevertheless almost endlessly plentiful before white people came to this region and began exterminating both species. There were twenty million salmon on the Columbia when Lewis and Clark arrived. Now, on a good year, there are fewer than one percent of that number. This is a direct result of over-fiishing and habitat-destroying dams. It has nothing to do with sea lions, and to pretend otherwise is to sacrifice both species to our willful ignorance. Scapegoating sea lions will not save salmon. It will only harm sea lions, and will allow the real factors in the salmon crisis to go unaddressed.
This is why many environmentalists, including the Wild Fish Conservancy, oppose the plan to scapegoat sea lions very vehemently. By the way, the sea lions are in danger of much more than trapping, though this is pretty serious in itself. Sea lions are being trapped for now, rather than killed, because there is a temporary injunction against killing them while a court decision is sought on the issue. Pray that the sea lions, and those who support them, win.
When we reach a place where we cannot live in harmony with the world around us, and instead start competing with other species like this, we are already over the line. And when we start thinking we can “balance” a system we have thrown off by taking out natural predators, we are courting disaster. The sea lions are part of the Columbia river habitat. They prey on lamprey and pikeminnows, not just salmon. Both the lamprey and pikeminnows compete with salmon for food, and eat juvenile salmon. So without sea lions, this system would be less healthy for salmon, not more. In addition, while sea lions are accused of eating 0.2 to 4% of the spring run salmon, humans consume at least 12% of every run. More to the point, the dams on the Columbia kill off as many as 75% of every run. So the idea of hurting sea lions to “save” salmon is ludicrous even on its face. And the deeper one delves into the issue, the more ridiculous it becomes. The only forces in favor of scapegoating sea lions for the salmon crisis are those who make a living off the fish: Fishermen (tribal, commercial, and sport), the departments of fish and wildlife for Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and the Bonneville Power Administration (which profits from the dams, which kill tens of thousands of fish each year).
April 30th, 2008 at 5:45 am
The califonia sea lions wiped out the steelhead run at the Ballard locks while everyone sat around ringing their hands. If something isn’t done the columbia river salmon will go the same way. It’s an unnatural situation at the fish ladders at the dam but it is not realistic to expect the dams to be removed as some would suggest. What’s to be done? I’ve seen no other suggestions to address the situation at the fish ladders.
The numbers of sea lions that are being removed is not in anyway endangering them. I doubt this will even equal historical harvests by native americans that can no longer take sea lions because of the marine mammal protection act.
I don’t understand this double standard of fishing and at the same time calling them endangered so there seems to be a disconnect there. At the same time you can’t ignore the sea lions.