Trapping of sea lions below Bonneville Dam suspended after illegal shooting

• Published May 05, 2008

The states of Washington and Oregon put a halt to capturing and relocating salmon-eating California sea lions below Bonneville Dam after six of the big animals were found shot Sunday.

The dead sea lions were found dead on trapping platforms near Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.

The states of Washington and Oregon have federal permission to remove 85 sea lions from the Columbia near Bonneville each year for several years to ease predation on endangered salmon and steelhead runs.

The states have been live trapping the animals in preparation for sending them to zoos.

But someone couldn't resist shooting the animals, which is sad. The shootings are illegal and only pour another layer of controversy on the plan to reduce sea lion predation on salmon.

Lost in all this is the fact that humans are really to blame for the entire problem. We've backed salmon into a tough corner with dams, commercial fishing and habitat loss. The sea lions have found the dams -- which concentrate salmon -- an easy place to hunt.

You can see a similar deal below the Fourth Avenue Bridge and dam right in Olympia every summer and fall. Chinook salmon returning to the Tumwater Falls hatchery stack up below the dam and seals and sea lions have easy hunting.

Sea lions on the Columbia are a problem for struggling salmon, but commerical gillnets in the river take more salmon than the sea lions.

It's just crazy.