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.