Eating Salmon will Cost Your Life..If u r a SEA LION

Sea Lions Executed for Eating Endangered Salmon in Oregon

posted by: Jennifer Mueller 15 hours ago

So far in 2010, 6 California sea lions have been executed by wildlife officials in Oregon for eating too many endangered Chinook Salmon at the bottom of the fish ladder at the Bonneville Dam. Officials are tracking a total of 60 sea lions on the Columbia river as repeat offender and may relocate them or issue more death sentences if "hazing," shooting the animals with rubber bullets or triggering underwater explosions near by, doesn't scare them off their preferred snack.

Fisherman vs. Sea Lions?

The conflict is playing out as a competition between fishermen and sea lions for a declining population of endangered fish.

Referring to "out of control" sea lion populations in a letter to the Daily Province, reader Mike Hodge writes: "It's time to cull sea lions before they eat all our fish."

Sharon Young of the Humane Society expressed her outrage in the Daily Finance: "This is about the integrity of the [fisheries] management program," says Young. "You can't sensibly say that a 4% take by sea lions is unsustainable and yet at the same time allocate up to 16% for fisherman. It makes no difference to the fish who eats them."

Real Cause of Salmon Population Decline

But sea lions are really only a minor threat to salmon. Habitat destruction is the real culprit (read: humans).

The reason the salmon at the Bonneville Dam are easy pickings for sea lions is because they are all preparing to go through small openings in the fish ladder to climb the 60 foot dam.