Changes allow more salmon-eating sea lions to be killed

Published: Monday, May 6, 2019

More California sea lions preying on imperiled salmon in the Columbia River below a hydroelectric project on the Oregon-Washington border are being killed under a revised policy, federal authorities said Friday.

NOAA Fisheries made public reduced criteria for removing sea lions at Bonneville Dam about 145 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

The new guidelines that went into effect April 17 permit any California sea lion seen in the area on five occasions or seen eating a fish to be put on a list for lethal removal.

The former criteria required both those marks to be met. Officials say 10 sea lions have been killed so far this year, most as a result of the policy change.

Robert Anderson, the agency's marine mammal program manager, said the Pinniped-Fisheries Interaction Task Force decided to make the change after dissatisfaction with current efforts. A study found the change could increase the number of sea lions killed by 66%.

Officials are authorized to remove 92 California sea lions annually from the area but have never come close to that number. Meanwhile, billions of dollars have been spent in Idaho, Oregon and Washington to save 13 species of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Salmon and steelhead congregate near the bottom of the dam to go up fish ladders, facing some delays in "getting through the pinch points, and sea lions have figured that out," Anderson said.

The California sea lions at the dam are all males, with some 200 to 300 showing up and numbers typically peaking in the spring.

They're bulking up on salmon, with some sea lions reaching 1,000 pounds, before swimming roughly 800 miles to breeding beaches at the Channel Islands off the California coast. Once there they try to establish territories, not eating for a month while mating with females in their area of control and fighting off rival males.

"It's kind of classic biology," Anderson said. "Get as big as you can to try to be successful." — Keith Ridler, Associated Press