I’m paddling into the Clackamas River, when a swirl in the smooth water precedes a massive sea lion surfacing a few feet in front of my stand-up paddleboard. I remember last year’s viral Youtube video of a girl being drug into the water by just such a beast, but then assure myself they very rarely attack humans. 
This 700-lb mammal has swam 70 miles, via 3 freshwater rivers, for another reason. He’s here to hunt fish. The burgeoning local sea lion population is odd to me, I grew up waterskiing and fishing the same stretch of river and never remember them. I do a bit of research that uncovers more problems than solutions.
The loveable and voracious predator is having a big impact on Oregon’s fisheries. Sea lions are being blamed for a massive impact on Oregon’s runs of beloved salmon, and endangered steelhead and sturgeon. State Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon has sponsored legislation that will allow Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife officials to exterminate an estimated two dozen of the sea lions below Willamette Falls, 70 miles upstream of the Pacific Ocean. It’s a dire solution for a dire problem.
It’s reported that around the year 2000, male sea lions began inhabiting the tributaries of the Columbia River. Populations are progressing further and further upstream, with dozens of males hunting alongside fishermen in rivers including the Willamette:
In recent years, sea lion populations have proliferated for a few different reasons. Protection from a 1972 bill was backed up with a fresh court ruling when the Nat’l Humane Society sued the Fish and Game Dept for exterminating the sea lions. A new program was implemented to transport the animals hundreds of miles south back to the ocean, but tracking chips showed they all returned straight back up the coast and into the same rivers. The sea lion’s few predators – sharks and whales - are in decline.
The Facts:
- Sea Lion’s are being blamed for killing 25% of endangered steelhead runs, and 9% of Chinook Salmon
- California Sea Lions, whose males travel to Oregon’s rivers to hunt in the summer, have rebounded from 30,000 to
3000,000 under protection from the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act - Ten sea lions were recently relocated over 200 miles away on the Pacific, but all returned to the rivers within about 6 days
Advocates of Extermination:
- Fisherman are infuriated by the animals “stealing” fish from their lines once hooked, and insist that the sea lions only take one bite (the soft boneless belly) from their prey before moving on
- Native American tribes with gill-netting rights for Spring Chinook Salmon Runs advocate selective extermination of the recovered populations of sea lions to protect dwindling populations of salmon
- Steelhead populations have been decimated in recent decades; fish and game department employees have stated that certain runs face a 90% probability of being wiped out by the current sea lion situation
In Defense of the Sea Lions:
- The California Sea Lions, as well as the Stellar Sea Lions, if exterminated, will be replaced by other sea lions in the same habitat, according to Humane Society animal rights activists
- Its possible these populations are taking unfair blame for failing fisheries, when hydroelectric dams, pollution, and other factors are also contributing. This is the stance maintained by the Willamette Riverkeepers
Links are provided below, please comment with your thoughts.
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/odfw-killing-sea-lions-vital-to-saving-steelhead-in-willamette-river/283-557305810
http://www.koin.com/news/local/clackamas-county/odfw-gives-up-on-trapping-willamette-sea-lions/1149655849
Sea lion drags girl into water:
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