February 15, 2006
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By Peter Rice
Pilot staff writer
GOLD BEACH – Seals and sea lions provoke very different reactions in people.
To some, they're cute scamps whose zany water play and impressive napping ability is something cool to marvel at.
But to fishermen, they're a competitive enemy. And to make matters worse, the enemy is protected by the full faith, credit and law enforcement potential of the federal government.
The enemy is also smart, and in the last five years has learned that hanging around fishing boats in the Rogue River estuary will quickly result in an easy lunch.
"Once you hook a fish they will come and take it off your line," said Mark Lottis, who owns Five Star Charters, an ocean and river fishing guide company in Gold Beach.
This past year's fall Chinook salmon season was especially bad, Lottis said, with seals and sea lions sometimes nabbing 80 percent of the hooked fish.
The biggest problem spot is in the bay of the Rogue River, roughly in the area spanned by the Highway 101 bridge. It's a good place to take clients fishing, Lottis said, because salmon tend to hang out there before heading up river to spawn. At the same time, the water isn't as choppy as the ocean, making it more comfortable for the humans too.
Lottis has spotted seals 35 miles upriver in Agness, but they hang out at the mouth in greater numbers, he said.
"These animals learn what the situation is and how to play the game," he said.
The impact on his business?
"It completely kills it," he said. Disappointed customers, who feel cheated out of their fish, write letters saying they won't return.
The problem is noticeably escalating on the Chetco River too, though not nearly to the level of the Rogue. Fishing guide Val Early said Tuesday that up to 85 percent of fish caught have seal or sea lion teeth marks.
The Rogue River estuary – along with the rest of the South Coast – is home to three major species of the seal/sea lion variety: Harbor seals, which weight up to 600 pounds; California sea lions, which clock in at up to 800 pounds; and stellar sea lions, which can weigh a whopping 1,500 pounds.
All three are off limits under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, a 1972 law that prohibits their taking. The stellar sea lion is also protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Primarily because of the marine mammal law, which ended hunting traditions stretching back to before white settlers came to the coast, the populations of sea lions and seals has been growing by 4 to 6 percent ever year, according to Susan Riemer, a wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
These days, 240,000 California sea lions call the West Coast home, or about 157 for every mile of Highway 101.
Seals and sea lions are opportunistic – not very picky – eaters. Riemer has found 50 different species of fish in scat samples, from salmon to ling cod to smelt to lamprey.
"The diet is pretty varied," she said. "It's also really ocean driven."
With the looming prospect of a customer revolt in a lucrative South Coast industry, Lottis, the president of the Curry Sport Fishing Association, is working to make the seals and sea lions go away, or at least feel very unwelcome.
Their three-pronged strategy includes installing barricades around popular hangouts, such as the docks at the Port of Gold Beach.
Also on the agenda: ending the practice of dumping filleted fish carcasses into the harbor. This summer and fall, Lottis said, the fish parts, which had been a reliable food source for the seagoing mammals, will be trucked away.
Meanwhile, the state is trying to make it easier to install grinders at the fish cleaning stations, which could reduce the waste into something inedible. Currently, according to ODFW's Rogue Watershed Manager Russ Stauff, the permitting process for those setups is long and very expensive.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) could make it much easier by rewriting the regulations, and Stauff persuaded the Curry County Board of Commissioners Monday to write a letter in support of that revision.
Installing barricades and ending the carcass dumping will cost about $35,000, Lottis said. The association will be paying the bill.
Another more dramatic option of using very loud firecrackers called seal bombs to scare the animals off is on the table, but will play out later, Lottis said.
The bombs carry with them some potential legal pitfalls. It's perfectly fine for fishermen to do what they can to harass seals and sea lions if they're defending their catch, so long as the animals are only covered under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. But when it comes to the Endangered Species Act, which covers stellar sea lions but not California sea lions, no harassment is allowed, period.
One poorly placed seal bomb could bring on a lawsuit, Stauff said. The explosion could also have an impact on endangered coho salmon.
While the seal and sea lion countermeasures are fairly experimental, Lottis said he's optimistic they'll work.
Meanwhile, Garth Griffin, a fisheries biologist with the federal NOAA Fisheries agency who has worked on the issue, is happy to see the citizen involvement.
"A community is stepping forward," he said. "They're investigating things they can do to solve this problem."
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Reach Peter Rice at price@currypilot.com.
