Salmon Dilemma

[Nemont]

This article has a little bit of everything: endangered species, protected species, dam breaching etc, etc.

Sea Lions With Appetite For Salmon Pose Dilemma

Wildlife Officials Are Struggling to Defend One Protected Species From Another

April 28, 2005 — The salmon run got off to a late start this year on the Columbia River, so the local sea lions started acting as any good fisherman might — and scouted around for a prime fishing spot.

The problem is the hotspot is in and around the $130 million fish ladders that the state of Oregon built to help endangered salmon migrate past the Bonneville Dam — not to help sea lions help themselves to all they can eat.

"We've been hazing the sea lions with pyrotechnics and we're getting rubber bullets for shotguns. If they don't stay out of the fishways, we'll have to escalate it to that point," said Robert Stansell, a biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Portland.

The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed using rubber bullets — not real ones — to get rid of the hefty fish eaters because the sea lions are protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. That means even if the California sea lions were to eat enough salmon to reduce the fish's numbers to zero, state and federal officials could not resort to lethal means — at least without years of paperwork.

The situation has placed wildlife officials in the awkward position of protecting an endangered species from a federally protected species whose numbers have grown to more than healthy levels. This has led some to suggest it may be time to amend the 1972 protection act to allow officials more leeway when it comes to managing the now-abundant California sea lion.

"As the California sea lion population continues to grow, I think this will continue to be a problem up and down the coast," said Brian Gorman of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries department. "The sea lions are finding the choke points of these mostly man-made barriers and helping themselves to salmon."

Others, meanwhile, denounce any suggestion to weaken the protection act, since they say the problem is caused by man-made dams, not sea lions.

"The dams kill about 90 percent of the salmon and also happen to concentrate the few salmon that are remaining in a way that sea lions can catch them more easily," said Todd True, a Seattle-based lawyer for the nonprofit group, Earth Justice. "If we had healthy salmon populations I don't think the sea lions would be the focus of the attention."

Late, Low Run, But Are Sea Lions to Blame?

It seems that the best weapon of choice so far against the hungry sea lions around the Bonneville Dam is hydrophones that Stansell's team recently installed underwater. The noisemakers give off high-frequency sounds that don't bother the fish but appear to be keeping most of the sea lions at bay.

"So far so good," Stansell said. "But we've only got enough hydrophones to use at one spot and there are four fish ladders on the dam."

Despite the partial success with the hydrophones, it remains to be seen just how healthy the salmon populations will be this year. On April 17, just 210 salmon were counted at the dam. By April 24, 3,600 fish were counted. The run at the site was expected to top 250,000 this year. Stansell and other biologists say that cooler ocean temperatures may account for the late, low run.

"It's just with the late run this year, the sea lions' impact has been more noticeable," said Stansell.
But that hasn't stopped some from pointing fingers at the sea lions.

Stansell's department has been getting a flurry of letters and phone calls from fishermen and groups, including the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, to do something about the some 100 sea lions that had been hanging out at the dam.

"We're discouraged the region spends millions of dollars to protect the salmon runs only to have some very precocious sea lions find their way into the dams," said Melinda Eden, chairwoman of the council.


Sea Lions Have Discovered Other Salmon Buffets

Protecting salmon from the protected sea lions is a familiar problem for the neighboring state of Washington, where officials spent nearly a decade grappling with a collection of aggressive sea lions who also learned that hanging around fish ladders at Seattle's Ballard Locks was an easy way to engorge themselves.

Wildlife officials say the Ballard Locks case shows that hungry sea lions can have a serious impact on salmon numbers if the problem goes unaddressed.

After years of trying unsuccessful hazing methods against the hefty mammals, the worst offenders were finally removed in 1996 and delivered to Sea World in Orlando, Fla. The local steelhead salmon run, meanwhile, nearly went extinct and still hasn't recovered.

"These animals are very intelligent," said Curt Melcher, a biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "They've learned over the years that humans are no longer a real threat, so when you fire firecrackers at them, they're not seriously threatened."

The dilemma in Seattle led the state fisheries department and NOAA to propose in 1999 that Congress amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow more leeway when it comes to protecting salmon from the now abundant California sea lion. In some cases, they argued, it makes sense to kill problematic sea lions that hang around fish ladders.

The 1999 measure to amend the act never passed, but now officials in Oregon are mulling over proposing the idea again to Congress. While overhunting had once depleted California sea lions' numbers in the early 1900s, the mammal has since flourished, tripling its numbers to more than 300,000 since the protection act was passed in 1972.

"It is a little perplexing why we have an animal that's not threatened or endangered but is protected and is battling with a species — salmon — that's truly endangered," said Stansell.

In the meantime, the Army Corps of Engineers is planning to install a fairly basic defense in the Bonneville Dam's fish ladders — bars. This is what officials did at Oregon's Willamette Falls to prevent sea lions from entering fish ladders at the site and it proved to be a fairly successful defense for the fish.

"It would be cheaper to take out some of these animals, but right now it's a long process and obviously you need to exhaust every alternative before you get to that point," said Bob Willis, chief of the environmental resources branch of the corps. "As it sits now, we're very limited in terms of what we can do."

True, of Earth Justice, argues the cheapest, most effective solution would be to remove some dams.

"Sea lions may be the visible culprit du jour," True said. "But we may be in a situation now that we were in in the 1990s when we saw salmon populations dropping dramatically. The easiest way to comply with the law is to remove some of the dams."

 

[JoseCuervo]

Thanks for the article, and we hunters and fishermen are lucky to have EarthJustice on our side.

The dams kill 90+% but we need to try and blame.... (pick one...)
Sea Lions
Terns on an Island
Pikeminnows
Indians

 

[BigHornRam]

Looks like I need to write Conrad about the sea lions. Maybe he can find a way to cut through the beauracracy like he did with the wild horsies?

 

[WH's OutdoorsChick]

Thanks for the article, and we hunters and fishermen are lucky to have EarthJustice on our side.

The dams kill 90+% but we need to try and blame.... (pick one...)
Sea Lions
Terns on an Island
Pikeminnows
Indians

YAYA..for once I agree... (unless you are being sarcastic ) I really was not aware of the dam "issues that were happening until I moved up here! I have learned a lot and I tend to lean toward breeching some of the dams!

The Army Corps of Engineers has proposed using rubber bullets — not real ones — to get rid of the hefty fish eaters because the sea lions are protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act. That means even if the California sea lions were to eat enough salmon to reduce the fish's numbers to zero, state and federal officials could not resort to lethal means — at least without years of paperwork.

I don’t get it!!!! We mess with Mother Nature and it is OK, but when the sea lions eat up all the salmon because they are smart enough to have found a place to have unlimited amounts of food it is somehow their fault…what kind of idiots are in charge here!!!! They need to be shot with rubber bullets|oo |oo |oo

 

[Washington Hunter]

Well I don't think it would hurt to kill a few sea lions, at least the ones that are doing the most damage. Not that it's going to bring the salmon back, but at least temporarily some salmon can be saved until the dams are breached.

 

[WH's OutdoorsChick]

Hey Baby....when are the dams going to be breeched??? I thought you said it would most likely Never happen?

 

[ELKCHSR]

Looks like I need to write Conrad about the sea lions

Every good will do gooder nutcase in the Seattle area would be up in arms and out in force if some one was to try and eradicate even one of them...

What might work is if they could figure a way to get the killer whales to start hanging around the locks a little more, then the fun would begin...

 

[Tom]

What eats sea lions, naturally? Can the Indians kill them legally? Have an Indian sea lion party? That probably is not legal, is it?

 

[Bandit]

hhmmmmmmmm having the killer whales hanging around, now that would be fun.

 

[Washington Hunter]

Oh I'm sure the Indians could kill them. They pretty much do whatever they want. But what's in it for them?

 

[WH's OutdoorsChick]

Just breech the daym dam

 

[Tom]

Give them $5 for each sea lion they kill, then you got more salmon, maybe.

 

[MarvB]

What if the sea lions eat the Indians????

 

[BigHornRam]

Do the French like sea lion meat? If not, I'm sure my dogs would eat one.

 

[ELKCHSR]

Oh I'm sure the Indians could kill them. They pretty much do whatever they want. But what's in it for them?

This is exactly right....

There is no open market for the sale and distribution of Sea Mammals, even for the Natives, and I don't think, from hanging with some a couple years ago, that they think Sea Lion is as good as the Local Mickey Dees...

 

[Erik in AK]

What eats sea lions, naturally? Can the Indians kill them legally? Have an Indian sea lion party? That probably is not legal, is it?

Orcas, White Sharks and Indians all eat sea lions. Getting hunt permits for local Indian tribes who historically hunted sea lions is feasible. They already get a whale hunt for the same reason...cultural maintenance. Alowing the Indians to conduct the hunt mitigates the protesters somewhat. If local tribes need to be retaught I'm sure their Yup'ik and Aluet betheren would be willing to show them how its done.

Sea Lions are smart too. If a hunt was allowed and a few lions were killed, the others would not be so bold and pressure would probably be taken off the salmon.

 

[pa mt man]

Erik, did you ever taste blubber. I'm just curious. I tease my daughter all the time that I'm going to taste it some day.

 

[ELKCHSR]

I should have been a little more specific I guess...

The Natives on the coast around the Seattle area don't hunt them and if they do, it sure isn't enough to effect the population down there, plus the whales are pretty safe when the green nuts in their boats chase the Indians around and scare off the whales...

 

[Erik in AK]

Yes, I've had blubber--tastes just like fat chicks but seriously folks...its called muktuk. Its whale or walrus blubber typically, cut into slabs like unsliced bacon. Its dried and stored underground. The Inupiat (Eskimo's Alaskan cousins) dig cellars into the permafrost to store their meat.

Muktuk is sliced off the slab, thin, and dipped in warmed seal oil, and as claimed, within seconds of swallowing you literally feel yourself warming up. Best way I can describe it is dip a chunk of beef fat into warm olive oil and chew. Then there's the "ice cream"--fresh blubber whipped into a cake frosting like consistency and mixed with berries.

The traditional "eskimo" diet is 80% fat, and yet heart disease was unknown to them until they "discovered" white flour, sugar and processed food.

Good question...

 

[Bandit]

You know alot about blubber and eskimo history Erik. Just out of curiosity, did you want to learn about them, or was it somethnig you had to do? I'm just asking because I'm interested in how they actually "live" up there.