Court spares salmon-scarfing sea lions (OR & WA)

The Oregonian ^ | April 24, 2008 | Michael Milstein

[jazusamo]

A federal appeals court injunction issued Wednesday says Northwest states can trap, but not kill, the animals

The on-again, off-again permission for Oregon and Washington officials to kill salmon-gobbling sea lions below Bonneville Dam is off again, courtesy of a federal appeals court injunction issued Wednesday.

However, the appeals court said state officials could still capture sea lions and ship them to zoos. Oregon officials said they will begin trapping up to eight of the Bonneville animals today.

The sea lions gather at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River to feast on salmon, including imperiled species, gathering to climb the dam's fish ladder. Frustrated fishermen and biologists fear the animals' appetite is cutting into billion-dollar efforts to restore Northwest salmon.

Roughly 25 to 30 sea lions have stationed themselves at the dam, but as many as 60 -- a new record -- gathered there a few weeks ago, said Brian Gorman of the National Marine Fisheries Service. He said the sea lions eat a total of 50 to 100 adult chinook salmon a day.

The Fisheries Service authorized the states to kill sea lions if they could not find other homes for them.

But the Humane Society of the United States, the Wild Fish Conservancy and two individuals went to court to block the killing. A judge in Portland last week turned them down and gave the go-ahead to take out the animals if necessary.

But the groups took their case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Wednesday issued an injunction blocking any killing. The judges scheduled a hearing in the case for May 8 in Pasadena, Calif.

The judges explained that if no sea lions are removed this year, they might consume between 212 and 2,094 spring chinook salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act, according to federal estimates. The 2008 salmon run is expected to be 269,000 fish, they said.

The killing of sea lions is, "by definition, irreparable," the judges said. However, they did not consider the loss of so few salmon to be irreparable harm. So they agreed to halt the killing, but said they would expedite their handling of the case.

State teams had planned all along to start out by capturing sea lions and had no immediate plans to kill any regardless of what the courts did, said Rick Hargrave of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

"In the short term, there isn't a significant impact on our plan," he said Wednesday.

He said sea lions are already lazing on floating platforms that will serve as traps. The platforms have fences around them that biologists can close with a rope to capture the animals inside.

Trapped sea lions will be shipped first to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, which can handle only eight at a time. From there, assuming they pass health checks, the sea lions will be transferred to other facilities such as Sea World.

He said the plan was for any sea lions that are rejected for health or other reasons to be killed. He was not sure what would happen to them given Wednesday's court order.

[jazusamo]

The 9th Circus strikes again, micro managing wildlife management with animal rights and enviro nuts.

[jazusamo]

From seattlepi.com

Sea lion trapping at dam starts today

California sea lion in the Columbia. State Department of Fish and Wildlife

Up to 20 sea lions could be trapped and shipped to zoos and aquariums beginning today and over coming weeks in an effort to cull the herd that's eating diminished Columbia River salmon runs.

State officials with Washington and Oregon got permission last month from the National Marine Fisheries Service to remove up to 85 of the California sea lions annually. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco Wednesday put a temporary stay on the killing of the marine mammals, pending action on a lawsuit. Homes in captivity are lined up for 20 of the animals.

The Humane Society of the United States, Wild Fish Conservancy and two individual citizens filed the lawsuit to save the sea lions. Arguments in the case should start early next month.

The enviros said that the government's case for killing the sea lions that nosh on fish at the base of the Bonneville Dam doesn't hold water:

"Blaming sea lions is nothing but a distraction," said Kurt Beardslee, Executive Director of Wild Fish Conservancy. "The National Marine Fisheries Service needs to look objectively at dam operation and over-harvest, which together kill significantly more salmon and prevent them from reaching high-quality spawning habitat."

Regulators for fish harvests recently shutdown chinook fishing off the coast of Oregon and California. In Washington waters, tribal, commercial and recreational fishermen will be able to catch 122,500 coho and chinook this year.

The government offers this rationale for removing the sea lions:

Despite three years of efforts to deter them, sea lions consumed more than 4 percent of the returning spring chinook salmon run last year, in just the area visible to observers on the dam. As of this week, approximately 50 sea lions were observed feeding on salmon and steelhead immediately below the dam.

[jazusamo]

9th Circus Ping!

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Salmon is good eating, I wonder how sea lion tastes?

[jazusamo]

Oregon Ping

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[okie01]

When Enviro-wacko Worlds Collide.

As acted out before the 9th Circus, no less...

[bigfootbob]

BASTARDS

[rockinqsranch]

Capture them? I guess we could do that. I’m thinking about the Leftists lack of thought about the “carbon” costs, the “Monetary” costs, and once the Zoo’s are inundated with Sea Lions, the costs of new holding areas for the excess animals of which of course would require a Leftist bureaucracy and facilities.

Quite a dilemma isn’t it.

So if we must capture them I guess the best thing to do would be to ship them all up to Antarctica, or wherever there are those beloved starving, due to Global Warming Polar Bears.

YEAH! That’s the ticket, feed them to the starving Polar Bears and that would end Global Warming.

[AuntB]

“The sea lions gather at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River to feast on salmon, including imperiled species, gathering to climb the dam’s fish ladder.”

.....sigh....

From the little enviro freaks on the street corner to the 9th circuit judges, they are all a bunch of imported freaks who don’t have a clue. People making these policies are 95% new to the West coast. This sea lion crap is a recent phenomenon, 20-25 years. They didn’t bunch up in human occupied places like that ‘way back when’. They got ran off by HUMANS! Who like to eat fish too! Now the liberal ‘humans’ who have taken charge of our governments out here
protect the predator! This whole thing is because there are too many SEA LIONS! Where they have no business being...these spots they’ve taken over was NEVER their natural habitat people! You can’t visit a pier on a coastal town anymore for dinner without being attacked by the stupid beasts.

[jazusamo]

I’d vote for sending them to feed the “starving” polar bears but only if the enviro wackos funded the trapping and relocating themselves. lol

They got permission to capture and/or kill 85 a year for 5 years to try to alleviate the problem. There simply isn’t anywhere to send that number to, they’ll have to kill them as well as relocate them.

[BlueNgold]

Do none of these jokers see the inherent folly in trying to interrupt the NATURAL food chain in the wild?

It is one thing to say that we, as thinking man, can and should make reasonable choices about our contact with the environment. It is entirely a different thing to believe that we can and or should directly involve ourselves in the natural predations of the the earth’s creatures.

[jazusamo]

Exactly! There are too many of them. They are still having problems with them at least as far south as Newport/Balboa bay in So CA, they get on the docks and on boats.

[AuntB]

This one really frustrates me. I listened to some environmentally enlightened college kid on the radio yesterday. When they walk into one of these communities taken over by these critters, they look and see that man has built over the sea lion’s habitat...really....that’s what they see.
I’ve walked all those beaches for 60 years. They were NOT there. Stinking things. I used to love them, you would rarely see one on the Oregon/California coast. Too much of anything is NOT good.

[rockinqsranch]

Right!

Was thinking also about sending the envir-whacko’s as feed for the Polar Bears, and then the States could go ahead and shoot the Sea Lions. Salmon, Polar Bears, and Global Warming all resolved in one swell foop.

[jazusamo]

The problem here is the Dam at Bonneville. It’s a choke point at the ladders that sea lions have become aware of in the last few years.

It’s not natural for them to come this far up river but it looks like the word got around amongst them because the same ones come back every year and bring more of their friends.

[AuntB]

“They are still having problems with them at least as far south as Newport/Balboa bay in So CA, they get on the docks and on boats.”

A few years ago, I saw one of these sweet sea lions go after a young woman who was just trying to get out of the stupid restraunt to her car. They’d taken over the whole place and I was warned (when I threatened to kick it!) that they are ‘protected’....’we can’t even yell at them’, I was told. It’s insane.

[jazusamo]

As a kid and a teenager I spent a lot of time at Newport/Balboa. I never once saw a sea lion in the bay, not once and can’t recall even seeing them on the breakwaters.

[AuntB]

“It’s not natural for them to come this far up river but it looks like the word got around amongst them because the same ones come back every year and bring more of their friends.”

OMG! lol! I was wondering where they were all coming from! They’re crossing the southern border! lol

[jazusamo]

LOL! That does sound rather familiar doesn’t it?

[AuntB]

“As a kid and a teenager I spent a lot of time at Newport/Balboa. I never once saw a sea lion in the bay, not once and can’t recall even seeing them on the breakwaters.”

Thanks, jazusamo. Sometimes you begin to wonder if you’re remembering correctly when you’re the only one who seems to see it that way. And they reproduce like rats. Protected rats.