Sea lions shot dead on Columbia River as salmon battle rages

from AP, via Yahoo!:



Sea lions shot dead on Columbia River as salmon battle rages
By WILLIAM McCALL, Associated Press Writer
50 minutes ago


PORTLAND, Ore. - Six federally protected sea lions were apparently shot to death on the Columbia River as they lay in open traps put out to ensnare the animals, which eat endangered salmon. State and federal authorities are investigating.

The discovery came one day after three elephant seals were found shot to death at a breeding ground in central California.

Trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who was at the scene Sunday.

The carcasses of the four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found Sunday around noon below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington.

The six animals appear to have been shot by somebody on the Washington side during the night, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Two open cages each contained the carcasses of two California sea lions and one Steller sea lion, he said.

Necropsies were planned for all the animals, and the area was being treated as a crime scene by state and federal agencies, Gorman said.

Investigators will try to determine whether there is any link between the animals killed Sunday on the Columbia and the elephant seals killed Saturday near San Simeon in California, Gorman said. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080505/ap_on_re_us/sea_lions_shot

The elephant seals was purposeless.

The sea lions and seals in the northwest are fighting with fishermen for the fish, been a problem for a while now. I've got no solutions, especially with hundreds of thousands of salmon gone.

nearly made the steal head extinct in 5 years.. parking in the locks at belviewe and slaughtering every one that entered the lock migrating thru

Puget sound smells like a rancid toilet from all the 100's of thousands of tons of seal shit that used to be salmon, that great inland sea goes septic turns into a sewer.

he seals just bite a chunk out of each fish.. 20-25%

the seals need to be controlled, there are no more preditors to limit their numbers

why I posted this to add information. Since they haven't caught who did it, you don't know if they aren't related. It's true the elephant seals weren't eating anything but who knows if some enraged person might equate them. After all half the nation thought we should attack Iraq because of 9-11.

Let's face it, all that moron would be thinking whilst looking through
his gun-sights is "Woohoo, that big-ass one will be a cinch!"
:grr: