Post by: denali on October 03, 2013, 09:17:56 PM
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — An appeals court has upheld killing sea lions that eat too many salmon at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had told NOAA Fisheries Service it needed to do a better job of explaining why it was authorizing the killing of dozens of sea lions, which are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. And on Friday the court affirmed that the latest explanation filled the bill.
The court said the service examined the relevant data, and explained the rationale behind killing up to 92 sea lions a year to reduce the loss of threatened and endangered salmon.
The Humane Society of the United States had challenged the killing, arguing that fishing and the dams kill far more salmon than sea lions.
- See more at: http://capitalpress.com/article/20131003/ARTICLE/131009968/1169#sthash.QpL5V27x.dpuf (http://capitalpress.com/article/20131003/ARTICLE/131009968/1169#sthash.QpL5V27x.dpuf)
Post by: sivart33 on October 03, 2013, 09:44:09 PM
Post by: j_h_nimrod on October 03, 2013, 10:16:19 PM
I would disagree that seals are worse, I have been around both extensively and the sea lions kill and wound many more per capita than seals in my experience. Seals certainly take their bite but they certainly seemed to have much less impact than the lions. This is just my observation and I do not have any research to back it up but seals certainly had less of an impact than the lions on adult salmon in the areas I was in.
Sea lions are essentially worthless but are treated as if they were a valuable natural resource and worth saving and returning to historic numbers when land use and fisheries management have to evolve to the changed the ecosystem to the point where we are spending millions to feed this non-contributing species.
Sea lions on welfare?
Post by: HairTrigger on January 17, 2014, 06:54:37 PM