Sea lion kills allowed to save salmon

SEATTLE — U.S. authorities have given wildlife managers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho permission to start killing hundreds of sea lions in the Columbia River basin in hopes of helping struggling salmon and steelhead trout.

The bulky marine mammals long ago figured out that they could feast on the migrating fish where they bottleneck at dams or where they head up tributaries to spawn.

“These are places where the fish are really vulnerable,” said Shaun Clements, senior policy analyst for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We have to manage this so the fish can get through to spawn.”

The new permit allows the states and several Native American tribes to kill 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lions over the next five years along a 180mile stretch of the Columbia, from Portland to the McNary Dam upriver, as well as in several tributaries. It’s the first time they have been allowed to kill the much larger Steller sea lions.

The sea lions, whose populations generally are healthy, have posed a longrunning challenge for wildlife officials, pitting mammals protected under federal law against protected — and valuable — fish runs. Complicating matters is that Columbia River salmon are a key food source for the Pacific Northwest’s endangered population of orcas, which scientists say are at risk of extinction if they don’t get more sustenance.

Over the past few decades, authorities have tried all kinds of lesslethal methods to deter the sea lions, including traps, rubber bullets and explosives, to no avail. They would return days after being relocated hundreds of miles away.

The Port of Astoria in Oregon even tried a fake, motorized orca made of fiberglass in a futile effort to keep them off its docks.

Under changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, authorities will be able to tranquilize, capture or trap sea lions in the area, then bring them to another location to give them a lethal injection. The permit forbids them from shooting sea lions.

Last year, Oregon officials killed 33 sea lions that were devouring steelhead on the Willamette River. Scientists estimated that the animals ate about onequarter of the returning fish there.