Federal authorities gave wildlife supervisors in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho permission to begin killing hundreds of sea lions in the Columbia River basin in hopes of helping depleted salmon and steelhead trout populations. .
Large marine mammals long ago realized that they could feed on migratory fish in bottlenecks created by dams or where they head to tributaries to spawn.
“These are places where fish are already really vulnerable,” said Shaun Clements, a standards analyst with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We have to manage this so that the fish can spawn.”
The new license allows states and several Native American tribes to kill 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lions over the next five years along a 180-mile (290-kilometer) stretch of Columbia from Portland to McNary Dam upstream, as well as on several tributaries. It’s the first time Steller’s sea lions, which are much larger, have been allowed to kill.
Sea lions, whose populations are generally healthy, have long been a problem for wildlife officials, putting federally protected mammals on one side and protected – and valuable – fish migrations on the other. . To complicate matters, Columbia River salmon is a key food source for orcas in the Pacific Northwest, a population that scientists say could go extinct if they don’t get more food.
In recent decades, authorities have tried all manner of less lethal methods to discourage sea lions, including traps, rubber bullets, and explosives, to no avail. They would return days after being relocated hundreds of kilometers (miles) away.
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