Apart from the contentious issue of dam removal, Congress must pass a bill to make it easier to kill some of the sea lions that are gorging on salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Those who oppose the killing of sea lions that gobble up Northwest salmon are right about at least one thing: The marine mammals are not the only factors threatening the survival of our endangered fish.
Yet these critics are wrong to suggest that breaching dams on the Lower Snake River could address the same problems as a separate plan to zero in on some of the predatory sea lions.
Apart from the contentious issue of dam removal, Congress must pass a bill to make it easier to kill some of the sea lions that have moved further into the Columbia River Basin, where the animals are gorging on salmon and steelhead that are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Whether to take down the Snake River dams is a politically fraught debate with no resolution in sight. But aside from that, sea lion predation is rapidly endangering other fish runs that are struggling to survive — including at spots such as Oregon’s Willamette Falls, where the sea lions are a serious threat.
“Taking out the dams on the Snake River is not going to affect the Willamette River population — that is not a Snake River dam problem, ” said Sara LaBorde, executive vice president of the Wild Salmon Center, which focuses on fish and river conservation.
Her group supports breaching the four dams to open more salmon habitat, but also supports killing some of the roving sea lions, which state fish and wildlife officials say didn’t start traveling up the Columbia River in significant numbers until the 1980s.
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/ta ... lmon-runs/
Advertising