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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 ...
Sorry, I’ll always pick the life of a mammal over a fish.
I don’t care how endangered the fish is.
Nature don’t care, only liberals.
Over 85% of all species that ever existed are extinct. Only Libtards are upset.
I think it’s not 100% natural as the fish get bunched up figuring out how to go up the fish ladder. The sea lions hang out at the bottom of the ladder where the fish congregate.
They're numbering sea lions like WWII German u-boats!
Okay. But the existence of a fish-ladder with a perpetual traffic jam is not the fault of the sea lions.
The endangered fish are salmon and steelhead, a commercial product that helps support a huge industry. The sea lions are just a pest. I don’t know of any jobs that were created by the presence of sea lions.
From the article:
“It’s a frustrating dance between California sea lions and wildlife managers that’s become all too familiar in recent months. The bizarre survival war has intensified recently as the sea lion population rebounds and fish populations decline in the Pacific Northwest.”
It is not bizarre. It is nature. Life and death are intertwined. Man is the dominant predator on the planet, and he has the responsibility to manage the rest.
There is no “balance” in nature.
The lack of balance is the result of humans, who will not face the reality of their own mortality, expecting all animals to live forever, in a Fake Disney version of reality that never existed and can never exist.
No kidding. Humans create a bottle neck, food source concentrates, /SeaLionHighFive!
Okay.
What does that have to do with my comment?
“. I don’t know of any jobs that were created by the presence of sea lions.”
Au contraire. Many Biologists and environmental lawyers would disagree.
They are merely doing what sea lions do - what any animal does- they are seeking out and availing themselves of the most easily obtainable food source in their area.
Perhaps the Fish & Wildlife folks should revisit their fish-ladder designs.
No it’s called messing with nature. Since humans can no longer hunt marine mammals, and its against the law to harass them, they congregate in the rivers and gorge themselves on dwindling fish stocks. And since the main goal is to prove that man is evil, they blame the dams for the reductions of the fish.
“Sorry, I’ll always pick the life of a mammal over a fish.”
Gotta disagree. We are battling over the food source. We protect sea lions so their numbers are exploding. They congregate at the base of the fish ladder. They eat the salmon, but they also scare away many more. So large numbers of salmon never reach their spawning grounds.
So we are talking a few dozen sea lions versus millions of smolt (baby salmon) with the potential to be hundreds of thousands to millions of adult salmon.
Sea lions look cute, but they are mean and destructive.
California Sea Lions are grossly overpopulated.
“But the existence of a fish-ladder with a perpetual traffic jam is not the fault of the sea lions.”
Well, I guess neither are the government fish hatcheries that pump out millions of salmon fry (young fish) so that west coast Indians can catch their 50+% of the ones that return each year to spawn in their home river or stream and be caught in the bank-to-back gill nets that only they are allowed to use. Of course, non-native anglers pay for the hatcheries with the cost of their permits. For commercial fishermen, the only way to get a license is to buy one from a retiring owner; that can cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But of course, all are created “equal”.
Nature indeed. Now that the sea lion population is exploding due to protection, look for an increase in the population of sharks and killer whales along the coast.
There are plenty of natural bottlenecks in salmon streams.
The real question is how did the sea lions learn of them, and then how did other sea lions find out? And why haven’t they always been doing this like the Alaska bears?
A justice department leak?
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