Killing to save salmon not the answer

I was saddened to see that plans are being made to kill hundreds of sea lions. Their plight is like ours — we have been given a buffet and since it is plentiful, we are blissfully and ignorantly preparing our own demise. We created a dam and found a way for salmon to go up a fish ladder. Naturally sea lions follow the food. Salmon will only be protected so we can kill and eat them, that is the eventual goal. We are not interested in them as a creature that deserves an unhindered way to live, enjoy that life and reproduce. We have interfered with their habitat and this has ripple effects all through the ecosystem.

So many animals, including us, depend on salmon for food. Unlike us, they cannot pick and choose, they eat what they can, when they can. Every one of the animals that depend upon them for survival is in danger of extinction if we continue to destroy habitat and "harvest" them for our own uses.

I hope that the people, when they take the lives of these creatures, have some sense of solemnity and hope one day that killing is not always the answer. We are given higher intelligence, there should be some creative way to allow the salmon and the sea lion and the human to co-exist. If we are stewards of the Earth, let us rethink how much we take and who goes without.