OLYMPIA

Olympia man fined for shooting, killing sea lion

A 55-year-old Olympia man has been fined $7,000 for fatally shooting a California sea lion on the Lewis River last spring, the National Marine Fisheries Service said Wednesday.

The fine is one of the largest ever brought in the Northwest under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Investigators were tipped by witnesses to the April shooting in Woodland, near Vancouver. The man, who was not identified by the Fisheries Service, told agents he shot the sea lion because it was eating young salmon and interfering with fishing.
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"Hunting is the only sport that I know of, in which one of the participants doesn't know that he is in the game." John Madden