I've said this in a previous thread and will say again here. The seal and sea lion population is ten times what it was in Puget Sound 15 to 20 years ago. I primarily fish Possession Bar and Pt no Pt in the fall/winter/spring months and the bulk of the fish we lose are to seals out there not sea lions. Go to Pt no Pt or Possession some day fishing and I'll guarantee you that within a short period of time you will anywhere from three to six or eight seals in a semi circle around your boat. The minute you hook a fish it's a race to see if you can get the fish to the boat before the seal gets them. It wasn't this way in the 80's or even the real early ninety's. I can remember fishing these area's and hardly ever having to fight seals or sea lions for your salmon. In those days though you didn't see the number of seals and sea lions that you do now so I can only correlate the increased problem with increased numbers of sea lions. Whatever the reason I wouldn't hesitate to kill some if allowed and as another poster said "I would be happy to do it for free."