Be Ever Vigilant!
Posted on 04/08/2006 8:47:54 PM PDT by george76
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 is we're trying to save the endangered salmon as they are going up past the dam, but you've got the Marine Mammal Protection Act that protects these marine mammals," says Bob Stansell, a Biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers.
The biggest violator is sea lion C-404. He has managed to penetrate the fish ladder at Bonneville Dam.
Biologists say there are nearly 1,000 other sea lions hunting salmon in the Columbia River ...
(Excerpt) Read more at katu.com ...
We just need to import some hungry eskimos. THey're pros at killing marine mammals.
Kill them of course...isn't that how we solve all problems like this? Just be rid of them all.
"when determining which one to kill intelligence should be a factor"
I'm with you Max. Kill the sea lions & feed the carcasses to the killer whales. The whales are more intellegent.
"the situation could get ugly"
It sure could.
Journalists with clear mature minds just may end up describing the inevitable story of what is bound to happen: them critters have to go.
This looks like a good task for the Army's new automatic shotgun.
Paging Shamu.! Paging Shamu!.
"Free Willie"
Do killer whales like to eat sea lions more than salmon ?
Their solution is to tear down the dams, for it is mans fault that the perfect gourmet feast has been set up. (sarcasm off)
There appear to be two sub sects [if not species] of Killer Whales. One eats fish. The other eats seals, sea lions, etc. Tests have shown that seals can distinguish the vocalizations of each type.
Would you be opposed to problem sea lions being killed?
Yes 37%
No 63%
Total Votes: 1450
I love to ask Fish and Game guys in California and Oregon why they are pestering/bothering an old grampa with a single barbless fishing fly with a license and legally fishing for salmon or steelhead?
Their answer is to protect the salmon and or the steelhead.
My response then is a question: "How much salmon/steelhead and other game fish does a 300# seal need to eat to stay alive?"
Then, the enviral bs comes out to protect the seals, who ravage the salmon and steelhead as they try swim past the pods of seals at every river mouth. None of them will answer that simple question.
We are seeing seals 30 and 50 miles up stream killing feeding off the salmon and steelhead who got by the gauntlet slaughter at the mouth of the rivers and in the estuaries.
"Problem sea lions should be shot by hunters paying a tag fee. All the money that has been wasted on playing tag with a couple of sea lions is just plain assinine."
Excellent. Let the Ca, Or and Wa fish and game cops, tag these worthless chunks of blubber with large orange darts.
Thenm have an auction for each tagged critter with the highest bidder getting to kill these worthless salmon/steelhead killers. Start the bidding at about $3,000 for the smaller rats with fins and start the bids at $10,000 for the real tubs of lard.
Divide the tag money bids up 50/50. Half goes to the poor professional fishermen who have been damaged by this perverted love for seals. The other half goes to real salmon/steelhead recovery programs not focused on farmers, ranchers and fishers.
Then sell the dead seal blubber to Catfood makers for more profit.
The high bidder gets to keep the seal's head and fur.
"The Calif. Fish and Game and the Enviros are a bigger threat to fishing than any predator. Amen to your statements."
Aloha, my friend!
As bad as most of the Ca Fish and Gamers are, their comrades in Oregon and Washington have to be even worse.
My son and I were harrassed by one on the N Umpqua for using man made materials in our steelhead flies. I looked at the clown and said, "All hooks are man made, so is any thread used to hold the feathers on the hook and so is any glue/epoxy used to secure all of this on the hook! Do you want us to cast a small piece of a rag with no hooks, thread or glue?"
He damn near said yes.
When I was a kid the Cal. wardens were mostly poachers and outlaws that got hired because they already knew all the tricks. Now days they hire Idiots with high test scores. Don't laugh, that last statement has more truth to it than most people think.
Thanks for voting.
"When I was a kid the Cal. wardens were mostly poachers and outlaws that got hired because they already knew all the tricks. Now days they hire Idiots with high test scores. Don't laugh, that last statement has more truth to it than most people think."
One of the most effective wardens I have ever seen was the guy who patrolled the area around Truckee in the late 70's and early 80's. He rode a mule around, dressed like poor trash red neck and asked how the hunting or fishing went. A lot of dummies would take him back to their camps to show and brag about their illegal deer or fish.
He would also hang out in the local bars in Truckee to ask drunks how their hunting went. That was how I met him. I had shot a deer and had it legally checked and was inquiring about a local butcher to cut it up, package and freeze it. The checker at the forest station told me to go into a certain bar and ask about a butcher. I did, and the game warden disgushed as local white trash. Introduced himself, and said that he wanted to see my deer, and I took him outside and showed him the deer with the tag.
Then he told me to follow him to the butcher. We rode a few miles to a little ranch. A local butcher for Safeway was on vacation and was receiving the legal deer for processing. The warden and butcher helped get the deer to the little butcher shop in the barn.
After I had signed the paper work, I started laughing. The warden wanted to know why I was laughing. I said between his red necking on his mule, bar hopping and his friend the butcher, he must catch a lot of poachers. They both laughed. I found later, he was the most effective warden in N California.
Be Ever Vigilant!
That dam was built in the 30's. The sea lions are recent and are the problem, not the dam. The bs about the dams being the problem is from enviro-whackos that want the entire PNW waterways returned to pristine Lewis and Clark conditons.
The other dirty secret is overfishing in the Pacific by Asian and Russian boats using illegal nets, etc. They lie like crazy about their annual take.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.