Sea Lion Hazing Starts Near Bonneville Dam

By The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.

Feb. 8–NORTH BONNEVILLE — Washington and Oregon fishery officials have started hazing sea lions at Bonneville Dam on a four-day-a-week basis.

Brad James of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the hazing started Feb. 1 and is from the boat-closure boundary at the dam downstream to Marker 85, about six miles.

Each state found some dollars to pay for the early-season hazing, he said.

Federal dollars will pay for daily hazing beginning the last week of February.

California sea lion numbers have burgeoned since the 1970s.

Since 2003, the Army Corps of Engineers has documented approximately 100 California sea lions annually consuming an average of 3,000 spring chinook salmon and steelhead at Bonneville Dam.

The estimates do not include losses of salmon and steelhead in other areas.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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