For the time being, the traps have been removed from Bonneville dam. The killing season is over for another year. This does not mean that sea lions are not still in danger: Indeed, the ODFW has been given the authority to kill sea lions on their hit list anywhere they find them, at any time of the year, with the exception of their rookeries. Last year, they killed one sea lion more than 100 miles from the dam, in August. So the danger continues for now. Volunteer monitors still being sought to keep an eye on the entire Columbia, and on the coast.

[UPDATE: Although monitors saw the traps removed, and although the May 21st Army Corps of Engineers Status Report stated that traps had been removed and stored, and that trapping at the dam had ended for the year, the traps were redeployed five days later and two more animals were killed. Sad that the ODFW feels the need to play such games with the public. As citizens of the Pacific NW, we believe we have the right to witness what our state agencies are doing - with OUR tax dollars no less - to our shared ecosystem. We also believe in government accountability. Apparently, ODFW does not share our belief. How do YOU feel about it?]

Mayor Don Stevens of North Bonneville met with three sea lion defenders this week to discuss the issue of the hazing and killing of sea lions near his idyllic town on the Columbia. It was very refreshing to talk with someone who actually understands the ecosystem in which we all live well enough to know that killing sea lions is no way to save salmon.

North Bonneville is a town on the front lines. Surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery on the face of the earth, it sits perched among emerald, cloud-capped peaks, and spans the banks of the Columbia from just north of the Bonneville dam to the rich wetlands and verdant hills to the South of the dam. The streams surrounding North Bonneville teem with native salmon, and the town has prided itself on restoring habitat and improving stream beds to bring those salmon back. Clearly, these are people who care about salmon and about the Columbia river ecosystem. In spite of the misinformation being perpetuated by ODFW, claiming that we must choose between the salmon and the sea lions, the people of North Bonneville understand that both species belong on this river, both species co-evolved here, and the sea lions are not a problem to the survival of the salmon as a species.
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One of the most persistent pieces of misinformation being perpetuated about the lethal removal of sea lions on the Columbia river is the assertion that “only the worst offenders” are being targeted for removal. Although this myth is being promoted by the ODFW, by the Army Corps of Engineers, and by all of the agencies participating in the killing, it is quite simply not the truth. Leaving aside, for the moment, just how an animal can be considered to be an “offender” for eating its natural prey, or how sea lions are accused of “offending” at the same time that fishermen are celebrated for killing many times more fish, there is also the question of technical veracity. This claim has none.

In fact, to be added to the kill list, a sea lion only has to have been observed eating ONE fish. The bar is very low, despite what people like ACoE representative Robert Stansell would have us believe. A sea lion who has eaten only one fish can be added to the list and killed, according to policy. And in fact, this has already happened. B31, the poster child for the “worst offender” myth, is on the kill list for eating one fish. Here is a partial list of some of the other so-called “worst offenders” on the kill list for eating fewer than ten fish:

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The ODFW requested permission, last week, to add two more sea lions to the list of animals marked for death under the section 120 exception to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. On March 16th, 2010, NOAA granted that request. C697 has been added for the crime of being observed eating 10 fish over a two year period. C00, newly branded, has been found guilty of eating 6 fish. Both animals were among a group of seven sea lions trapped near Bonneville last week. The other five in that trap were already on the list, and were put to death.

Seven sea lions were trapped on the Columbia today. ODFW spokesman Rick Hargrave reports that five of these were slated to be killed. At the time that a SLDB member spoke with him – around noon today – Hargrave did not know whether the sea lions had already been killed or were about to die. But he said he was certain that they were to be killed. [update: Indeed, the five sea lions are dead.]

Alas.

You may reach Mr. Hargrave for more information or to tell him what you think about the killing by calling (503) 947-6020 or faxing (971) 673-6070.

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.

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