Sea lions shot dead on Columbia River as salmon battle rages

William McCall, Associated Press Yahoo News 5 May 08;

For years, the sea lions lounging at the Bonneville Dam have had easy pickings from salmon waiting to go up fish ladders to upriver spawning grounds.

Over the weekend, the federally protected sea creatures were themselves easy prey for a gunman who shot and killed six of the sea lions as they lay in traps meant to humanely catch them.

State and federal authorities were investigating the shootings, which came less than two weeks after an appeals court issued a temporary injunction against authorities killing the salmon-gobbling mammals. Agents have been trapping them instead, but trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fishermen and American Indian tribes have pushed to protect the salmon and remove the sea lions, by lethal force if necessary.

The carcasses of the four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found Sunday around noon below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington.

The six animals appear to have been shot by somebody on the Washington side during the night, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Two open cages each contained the carcasses of two California sea lions and one Steller sea lion, he said.

Necropsies were planned for all the animals, and the area was being treated as a crime scene by state and federal agencies, Gorman said.

The discovery came one day after three elephant seals were found shot to death at a breeding ground near San Simeon in central California. Investigators will try to determine whether there is any link between the shootings, Gorman said.

Seven California sea lions were trapped on the Columbia starting April 24 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved their capture. One died during a medical inspection before transfer to a Sea World park.

Washington and Oregon have been granted federal authorization to capture or kill as many as 85 sea lions a year for five years at the base of the dam.

The Humane Society of the United States has gone to court to challenge the authorization, with another hearing set for May 8. Until a judge rules, no animals may be legally killed.

"We're really shocked," said Sharon Young, a Humane Society spokeswoman, who learned about the sea lion deaths from a reporter. "We're a nation of laws, and we should expect people to abide by them."

Six sea lions shot to death on salmon-rich US river
Yahoo News 5 May 08;

Investigators searched for clues on Monday in the shooting deaths of six protected sea lions at a dam between Washington state and Oregon, while officials halted a controversial trapping program aimed at stopping the mammals from eating endangered salmon.

The discovery of the dead sea lions on Sunday follows other shootings in recent years that caused bodies riddled with bullet holes to wash up on the banks of the region's Columbia River.

"This is being investigated by Washington, Oregon and our fish cops," said National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman. Authorities would not say if they had any suspects.

The deaths temporarily halted a new trapping program in Oregon and Washington, which won permission from the federal government in March to trap and kill the protected pinnipeds to save endangered salmon.

The Humane Society sued to block the killing and while the suit is pending, the states are limited to trapping the mammals and sending them to zoos and aquariums. Seven were trapped and transported to an aquarium in late April, where one died.

"We are calling on the government to stop the trapping program," Sharon Young, marine issues field director of the Humane Society of the United States said.

For the past five years, the sea lions have been making the 150-mile (241-km) trip up the Columbia River, a favorite of sport and commercial fishermen. The sea lions eat salmon as they channel into the Bonneville Dam's fish ladders on their way upriver to spawn.

Authorities have tried to deter the sea lions with physical barriers, fire crackers and rubber bullets, without much success.

Although the salmon run on the Columbia River was strong this year, shrinking numbers have prompted critical restrictions on West Coast salmon fishing.

The Fisheries Service banned virtually all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the West Coast for one year beginning May 1.

(Reporting by Teresa Carson, writing by Mary Milliken and Daisuke Wakabayashi, editing by Alan Elsner)