Cascadia Journal

I am pretty sure we can come up with a better solution.

In recent news, we find out that U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman has ruled that Oregon and Washington, as a last resort, can begin killing as many as 85 sea lions annually for five years.  This would remove animals that state wildlife officials say threaten billion-dollar efforts to save and restore salmon runs.  This is a solution that was requested by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to help solve a salmon vs sea lion problem.

The problem is a side effect of constructing the dams on the Columbia River.  To preserve the salmon runs, there is a fish ladder at each of the dams to allow salmon to migrate back up the river to their natural spawning grounds.  Unfortunately, the wily sea lions have learned that it is easy to gather a large number of these endangered salmon for dinner by hanging out where the fish congregate to begin their journey through the fish ladders.  Admittedly, over the years, wildlife officials have tried using many different methods of keeping the sea lions from eating the fish.  The problem is most troublesome at Bonneville Dam, the first dam encountered as a fish or a sea lion swims up the Columbia River from the ocean.

The Wildlife Department and fishermen blame the 25 to 60 sea lions have been spotted below Bonneville Dam during spring runs, gobbling up as many as 100 migrating salmon daily as the fish gather to climb the dam’s ladder, as a major problem in reducing the salmon fishery.  While sea lions do indeed eat a lot of fish, it is notable that overfishing in the past is the overwhelming reason why the stocks of salmon are so low in the first place.  A secondary reason is the changes in the environment around the rivers has disrupted the cycles of the salmon.

Yes, I don’t doubt for a moment that the sea lions are taking advantage of the smorgasbord of fish that the dams provide is attracting sea lions for feeding.  I do understand that fish & wildlife officials have spent a lot of time trying to get the sea lions to not consume the fish.  But I really believe that we need to do something other than kill the sea lions for simply doing what nature has taught them to do to survive for all of recorded history.

Who among us has not seen pictures of a bear plucking salmon out of the river for dinner?  For many years, such a scene was used all over television programs as an example of how things are in nature.  whether we see it or not, our food chain is made up of a myriad of cases of one animal eating another animal.  It is just something that happens.  We change that cycle at our own peril.

Killing sea lions is not really going to solve anything.  Wildlife policy, as instituted by humans, is going to do more to preserve the salmon runs and other parts of nature so they can continue to thrive and nourish us well into the future.  I encourage our public servants to come up with a better option for the problem.