Sea lions showing up in Oregon
Tom Stienstra, Chronicle Outdoors Writer
Thursday, January 7, 2010
excerpt from the article:
The abundant sea lion population in this area has created a micro-ecosystem where wildlife flourishes, Saubert said.
“What I think is happening is the sea lions follow the food supply,” Saubert said. “Now we have all these sea lions here. They eat fish and their waste goes to the bottom. That fertilizes the marine food chain. You get plankton and brine shrimp, and that brings in the small fish and the whales. The small fish bring in the seabirds and the bigger fish. So the sea lions have plenty to eat and the cycle starts over again.” Upwelling, a trigger for the marine food chain set off by winds out of the northwest, is often significant here.
Farewell depicts the struggle between the sea lions and the fishing industry. It also shares the pain and frustration of animal advocates who struggled so hard to stop the killing before it started, while apathy, ignorance, and greed led inexorably to the deaths of more than a dozen of these beloved animals last year. This is a remembrance of the animals who have died, and a call to arms to those who have not yet risen out of apathy to take a stand. The spring is coming, and we need to stand with the sea lions.
Today, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments regarding whether or not to allow ODFW to continue to kill sea lions on the Columbia river. While it is too soon to tell how the judges might rule, lead counsel Sarah Uhlemann argued forcefully and eloquently on behalf of the sea lions. The judges seemed very interested in how the agencies involved with the killing could have determined, on multiple occasions, that the killing of salmon by the fishing industry and by dams does not pose a significant threat to salmon recovery, while the much lower rate of take by sea lions somehow does pose a significant threat. On at least two occasions, government attorneys actually made blatantly incorrect statements that were later corrected by Uhlemann. The first came when the judges questioned the agencies’ assertion that the killing by the fishing industry and the dams is different from the killing by sea lions because the killing by fishermen and dams is “controlled,” and “remediated,” while the killing by sea lions is not.
Last week, a young sea lion lay dying on the coast near Seaside. Although her condition was completely treatable, authorities were adamant that no treatment would be provided: They decreed that nature should take its course with the animal, and that they felt they needed to “keep humans out of the equation.” This might have made more sense, had the sea lion not been sick and malnourished in the first place due to human interference in the ocean ecosystem. It is also interesting to note that NMFS was one of the agencies dictating a “hands off” approach regarding the sick animal. This agency, after all, has allowed the very violent human intervention into the affairs of the sea lions of the Pacific NW, in the form of the “lethal removal” program on the Columbia that has already cost more than a dozen sea lions their lives. Thankfully, this is Cascadia, and here, we like to think (and act) for ourselves.
Once again, the State of Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has lied to the public regarding the killing of Columbia river sea lions. On May 19th of this year, they claimed in a public statement that the trapping and killing had ended for the year. Sea Lion Defense Brigadiers sought and received a personal assurance from ODFW spokesman Rick Hargrave that this statement meant that there would be no more killing of sea lions by ODFW anywhere on the Columbia in 2009. Mr. Hargrave stated that “trapping and marking” in Astoria would continue but, when pressed several times for a clear response, finally stated that no, no more animals would be “euthanized” by ODFW this year. However, on August 24th, they trapped a sea lion on the Oregon coast, in Astoria, more than a hundred miles from Bonneville dam. And they killed him. They claimed he “met the criteria for removal,” meaning that he had been “observed eating at least one fish.”
The state failed to notify the public of this killing in a timely manner.
At a time when thousands of sea lions are starving to death from Chile to Canada, when the public is struggling to save them, and while NOAA is apparently trying to figure out why they are dying, the ODFW has resumed killing those sea lions who venture into Oregon waters. The irony is compounded when one appreciates that the reason so many sea lions are starving to death is very likely over-fishing. (For more information on the connection between over-fishing and starving sea lions, see below.) And so, to protect the interests of people who want to fish until there are no fish left in the oceans, the ODFW is killing sea lions to make more room for the fishermen.
The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, filled to capacity
As word comes in that sea lions are starving to death on the coast, we are forced to reconsider the impact that fishing is having upon the entire ecosystem. It seems that both sea birds and marine mammals, and in particular sea lions, are the canaries in our coal mine once again. They are dying in droves, unable to find food. Fingers have been pointing everywhere except at the one very obvious culprit: The fishing industry.
Mass Starvation
The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California, reports that thousands of calls from concerned citizens are pouring in to their facility from all over the coast, reporting stranded and starving young sea lions. Rescuers are taking in hundreds of the animals, but they simply cannot keep up. Staff at the center say they’ve never seen so many strandings before. The same story is playing out all down the coast. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center down in Laguna Beach, hundreds of miles to the South, tells the same, sad story. There, too, hundreds of sea lions are starving. It’s not only the sea lions, though. Sea birds are also being found weakened and dead, apparently unable to find food. Earlier this spring, 500 cormorants were found starving on a California beach, and from California to Cascadia, we have been watching endangered murrelets weakening and dying due to an erosion of their natural food supply since at least 2006.
It’s been a painful and emotionally difficult spring, as we were forced to stand helplessly on the shore while ten sea lions were unceremoniously put to death by the State. We will remember them all, each and every one. All of their lives were meaningful, and all deserved better than they got. Two of them, especially, will be greatly missed by those of us who knew them. Branded C578 and C579 by the State, these two were lifelong friends. (For their story, please see http://sealiondefensebrigade.org/?p=286.) If it had not been for the efforts of those of you willing to patrol the Columbia this year, there would almost certainly have been many more killings. Your efforts have meant the difference between life and death for at least some of the sea lions who call Cascadia home.
I want to thank those of you who joined us to keep watch on the banks and in the waters of the Columbia this spring. Your work has helped to save some lives, even if we could not save them all. Read the rest of this entry »
Two prominent Obama administration officials were in Oregon today to discuss salmon recovery. NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco and White House Council on Environmental Quality chairwoman Nancy Sutley came to talk salmon, but pointedly did not allow participation from the public — indeed, the doors were closed to almost everyone. This did not stop sea lion advocates, anglers, and other stakeholders from making their voices heard anyway.
Three more animals have just been killed. Sadly, one of them had been given a name by the children of Redland Elementary school last month. “Glider” (branded C645) was one of several sea lions to be named by children who understand that sea lions belong on the Columbia river, and that killing them is wrong. What a lesson for our children, to have Glider – a protected, native, beautiful being – put to death by the State in a conflict over salmon.
Also killed was C674, dubbed “Hershey” by the community, named after Governor Kulongoski’s dog.
The third animal to be killed this week demonstrates something that SLDBrigadiers have been saying all along: Read the rest of this entry »
At least two more sea lions have been killed. One of them was trapped far from Bonneville, all the way down at the mouth of the river, in Astoria. More details to come.
Last week, a young sea lion lay dying on the coast near Seaside. Although her condition was completely treatable, authorities were adamant that no treatment would be provided: They decreed that nature should take its course with the animal, and that they felt they needed to “keep humans out of the equation.” This might have made more sense, had the sea lion not been sick and malnourished in the first place due to human interference in the ocean ecosystem. It is also interesting to note that NMFS was one of the agencies dictating a “hands off” approach regarding the sick animal. This agency, after all, has allowed the very violent human intervention into the affairs of the sea lions of the Pacific NW, in the form of the “lethal removal” program on the Columbia that has already cost more than a dozen sea lions their lives. Thankfully, this is Cascadia, and here, we like to think (and act) for ourselves. 
