Posted on 11/07/2009 4:49:49 AM PST by decimon
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A new report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates sea lions ate 4,960 salmon and steelhead during the spring of 2009 — 2.4 percent of the fish passing the dam located near Cascade Locks, Ore. That compares to an adjusted estimate of 4,927, or 2.9 percent of the run, in 2008.
And while the number of California sea lions was down — 54 this year compared to 82 in 2008 — the average number of salmon eaten by each one was up, along with the number of Stellar sea lions — 26 this year compared to 17 last year.
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(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“Estimates”
hard to see how less than 3% of the run eaten makes any difference really
Salmon toll? How much will they pay to swim upstream now?
There are actually people paid to count this sort of thing?
And just how do they do that?
OTTH, Canada to investigate disappearing Pacific salmon (sockeye salmon).
OH, it's not that hard...once you get your feet wet.
$15,000 a year. It's in the Pelosi health care bill.
Count how many fish a sea lion eats in a day? In the ocean?
This has to be a joke.
This has to be a joke.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can do anything. Well, maybe not in New Orleans but how many salmon do they have there?
Sounds like a stimulus project -- morons doing nothing to contribute to a better economy while sitting at a terminal watching sea lions. Probably an environmental engineering major from Oregon State at that.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can do anything”
Ha ! They know how to screw up the Atlantic coastline that’s for sure. The jetties that were built that were supposed to prevent beach erosion have been found to do the opposite, and all of the sand replenishment year after year costs taxpayers a fortune.
Near shore, in river, not deep ocean.
They use fish counters - a sonic pulse is sent out and the returns are counted by computer. So many fish pass a certain point in a given time gives an average over time. These are called “guesstimates”. From this number the run size is estimated and compared to the forecast return size - from the number of smolts which passed simular counters out bound to the ocean.
Plus salmon have a historical cycles running 4 years, in cycles of 4. Looking at historical data such as forecast run size vs. actual return vs harvest can give one a fairly accurate estimate of how many salmon will return in a given year for a given cycle.
Seals and Sea Lions were controlled by commercial salmon fisherman originally - via 12 gauge double ought, and an occasional dynamite blast at seal/sealion roockeries. At no expense to the taxpayer.
However, when commercial salmon fisherman became a “thorn in the side” of fishery managers by accurately predicting run sizes using the managers own data, Something Had To Be Done.
Enter the “Endangered Species Act”. This bill introduced the concept of the $250,000 fine and prison time for commercial salmon fisherman caught controlling these very stinky beasts caught in the act of destroying the fisherman's very expensive nets and harvesting all salmon in those nets.
Like the fake Spotted Owl flap was used to drive loggers out of the forests, the fake Marbled Murrlet flap was used to drive fishermen off the water.
Now the Seals and Seal Lions began to do what was natural - breed and feed. As their populations exploded so they began to hunt in places they had never hunted before, or only in very small numbers. The Feds tried trapping them but they only returned. So the Feds had to begin doing what the commercial salmon fisherman had done for free. And tax dollars were put to work (think of this as a job created in Hussein-speak).
This whole Federal program has been a total failure and in fact resulted in even smaller returns of smaller fish - an average 10 lb coho (silver) salmon shrunk to an average 3.5 lb coho, a 25 lb average Chinook (king) salmon shrunk to 10 lbs or less.
It is also worth noting that the entire problem on the Columbia was created by the Feds in the first place. When FDR decided to build the dams in the 30’s, only the commercial salmon fisherman protested. The dams built without provision for the salmon; the world's largest Sockeye (red) salmon run was destroyed in the name of cheap power.
The commercial salmon fisherman paid the price then, and now they get to pay again, but this time so does the tax payer - in both dollars and reduced availability of wild salmon to eat.
Your Federal Tax Dollar At Work.
And, yes, the winning bidder would probably send independent contractors out to sit and count seals and salmon. That's typically how it works.
Good post.
Not a joke. Interesting.
Weren’t they supposed to build ladders or whatever they are called, for the salmon to get around the dams?
I love eating salmon, a great source of protein, and I have a zillion recipies, From grilling to roasting, baking, salads, soups, very versatile.
What a shame. Do the seal lions have any natural enemies other than killer whales?
“Weren’t they supposed to build ladders or whatever they are called, for the salmon to get around the dams?”
Not in the 30s - salmon, like the commercial salmon fishermen, were of no consequense to the Feds and FDR. The diversions put in were an after thought, and did not work very well, so the salmon going up stream mostly died in front of the dam - no one told them they were suppposed to bear right/left to the diversion, and the smolts going down stream likewise failed to get the memo not to go through the turbines.
“Do the seal lions have any natural enemies other than killer whales?”
Yes. Commercial salmon fishermen... and sharks.
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