Columbia River conservation at loggerheads

Thousands of spring chinook salmon are headed for the Columbia River, and California sea lions will be waiting for them at Bonneville Dam.

The sea lions have feasted on the salmon for the past few years, but the animals might pay a high price for easy meals this year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is nearing a decision that would allow Washington, Oregon and Idaho to kill 30 sea lions that ignore firecrackers and rubber bullets to eat salmon.

The decision is due in mid- to late March, which is when the chinook run is predicted to hit high gear at the dam. The sea lions have an easy time catching salmon as they bunch up at the dam's fish ladders.

No one likes the idea of killing the sea lions, which have been protected under the federal Marine Mammal Act since 1972, but the animals are taking more of the chinook, which are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The sea lions, which killed an estimated minimum 4.2 percent of the salmon at Bonneville Dam last year, aren't the biggest reason why Columbia River runs are struggling — the many dams on the river and other human-caused problems kill most of the fish.

But state and tribal biologists say the sea lions are taking enough to hurt the recovery of salmon.

"If we completely removed every sea lion from the Columbia River — if we took them all out — it wouldn't get us to the recovery of salmon on the Columbia River," said Charles Hudson, spokesman for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fisheries Commission. "But if we do nothing, given the great increase in sea lion population and predation on salmon, we'll undo a lot of work done during the past decades to help salmon recover."

Booming population

Brent Norberg, Northwest marine mammal coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said sea lions have thrived since the 1972 act. Studies show there are about 250,000 such sea lions, and the population appears to have reached its maximum for the environment, Norberg said.

California sea lions first became a problem for Columbia River salmon in 2001, and the numbers gathering at the dam have increased, Norberg said.

Last year, 69 marked sea lions were seen eating salmon at the dam. But not everyone is in favor of killing sea lions to save salmon. Sharon Young, marine issues field director for The Humane Society of the United States, said dams and other human-caused woes kill most of the salmon.

"It is true that there is an abundance of California sea lions, but it is a misrepresentation that they are to blame for what happens to salmon," Young said.

Biologists predict that 269,500 chinook will swim into the Columbia this spring, and that's the third-largest run since 1977. The size of the run is bigger than average, but it is a small fraction of the runs that returned to the Columbia before the dams were built.

The big run proves the sea lions aren't killing too many salmon, Young said.

"This is not really about saving fish," Young said. "It's about the frustration of watching sea lions eat salmon."

Not just this year

Young said killing 30 sea lions will not eliminate the animals near Bonneville Dam. NOAA's draft environmental assessment of the plan to kill sea lions agrees with Young.

"Removing 30 sea lions each year would reduce the numbers of sea lions present at the dam, but there would still be many sea lions in the area each year," the report states.

Hundreds of sea lions swim into the Columbia River every year, Norberg said. And that means killing sea lions would not be a one-time deal. "We are likely to see lethal control on an annual basis for a significant time to come," Norberg said.