Humane Society Tries To Kill Fed's Bonneville Sea Lion Decision

Northwest Fishletter

April 11, 2008

The Humane Society and Wild Fish Conservancy have filed a complaint in federal district court in Oregon to stop the lethal removal of sea lions preying on salmon at Bonneville Dam.

The group says the marine mammals' 4-percent take is nothing compared to the fishermen's take of 12 percent, the birds' 18 percent, and the dams' 59 percent.

The complaint argues that the sea lions do not have a "significant" negative impact, as federal agencies claim.

Further, the complaint says, some members of these plaintiff groups have developed "personal relationships with some of these animals," and will be "severely emotionally affected" if any of their favorite sea lions are killed.

The March 24 complaint pointed out that in the early 1990s at Seattle 's Ballard Locks, NMFS decided that the sea lions had to have a 10-percent impact on the steelhead run they were consuming before the agency would condone lethal removal.

For these and other reasons, the groups say the feds are violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Lethal removal of some sea lions was slated to begin last Friday, but an agreement was reached between the feds and the Humane Society that would keep the lethal option from being implemented until April 18, which will give the court enough time to rule on the society's request for a preliminary injunction to stop the sea lion removal project.

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