Posted on 03/22/2018 1:08:18 PM PDT by Red Badger
NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — The 700-pound sea lion blinked in the sun, sniffed the sea air and then lazily shifted to the edge of the truck bed and plopped onto the beach below.
Freed from the cage that carried him to the ocean, the massive marine mammal shuffled into the surf, looked left, looked right and then started swimming north as a collective groan went up from wildlife officials who watched from the shore.
After two days spent trapping and relocating the animal designated #U253, he was headed back to where he started — an Oregon river 130 miles (209 kilometers) from the Pacific Ocean that has become an all-you-can-eat fish buffet for hungry sea lions.
“I think he’s saying, ‘Ah, crap! I’ve got to swim all the way back?'” said Bryan Wright, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife scientist.
It’s a frustrating dance between California sea lions and Oregon wildlife managers that’s become all too familiar in recent months. The state is trying to evict dozens of the federally protected animals from an inland river where they feast on salmon and steelhead that are listed under the Endangered Species Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
Makes sense. Would not the natural bottlenecks tend to be far upstream? Maybe the sea lions don’t want to go THAT FAR from the ocean. It is interesting that they’ve apparently only recently figured this out in sufficient numbers to be a problem.
Maybe an increase in sea lion population is driving them to look for new food sources.
We should send the California Sea Lion back to California. Build the wall!
Sorry but they should be euthanized just like stray dogs and cats. Let the fish live. Fish lives matter!
Sea lions just doing what they’ve done for centuries and centuries. Rational people would just kill them if their populations got too large.
If only Sea Lion was as tasty as Cedar Plank Salmon. I just got a new pellet grill/smoker and can’t wait to try it out.
Bear yummies. They need to make this a Grizzly bear preserve. After they do what Grizzlies do move them to Alaska.
Naturally!.....................
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