Protection for Salmon Comes in the Form of Killing Sea Lions
In the 1990s, 65% of the steelhead at Ballard Locks in Seattle had been devoured by sea lions. This was seen as a problem, and steps were taken to solve it, however the run has not fully recovered. Now, another group of fish is in trouble.
The Columbia River is home to many migrating salmon, however, about 4% of spring runs heading upstream to spawn are consumed by sea lions at Bonneville Dam. For years, knowledgeable fishermen and tribes near the river have wanted to take action against the sea lions in order to save the fish.
At least three types of the salmon that swim up the Columbia River are endangered species. The sea lion is not endangered, but protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. States are required to get permission to kill sea lions that have a significant negative impact on at-risk fish. Under some conditions NOAA Fisheries can grant the states’ requests.
On Thursday, a report was released by the NOAA Fisheries Service which recommended killing close to 30 sea lions a year at the dam. These sea lions surround the dam because a great number of fish go there to pass through the “fish ladders”, small openings in the dam that allow the fish to swim past the dam to spawn.
There are four alternatives to killing the allotted 30 sea lions per year. These options will be presented in public testimony through the 19th of February, and a decision will be made in March. Those alternatives include: taking no action, using non-lethal weapons such as firecrackers ““which has not been effective thus far, capturing the sea lions, or killing all sea lions within five miles of the dam (equaling approximately 150 sea lions). This is what the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho would like to see happen. Others argue that the real problems are predatory birds, declining habitat and the dams themselves.
Sharon Young, the marine issues field director of the Humane Society of the United States says that this will do very little to help the fish. She claims, “It is not clear that this will do anything other than kill sea lions."
The run at Ballard Locks that was killed in the 1990s has never gotten back to its full size. Killing the sea lions there hardly scratched the surface of the problem.
Another group, the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission said that the killing of sea lions is necessary to protect the salmon. A statement from the group said that several of the sea lions have "become adept at exploiting endangered salmon seeking to enter the fish ladder at Bonneville Dam."
Photo Credit: David Corby
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