Federal officials on Friday approved the killing of more than 700 Sea Lions in California and Steller along the Columbia River over the next five years in an effort to rescue endangered and endangered salmon and steelhead trout, according to reports.
The controversial “deadly control” program opens nearly 200 miles of the river for various tribal and government fisheries administrators in Washington, Idaho and Oregon, according to Q13 FOX in Seattle.
In 2018, Congress approved an amendment to the Marine Bird Protection Act of 1972 that would allow the killing of sea lions to allow endangered fish, but the National Marine Fisheries Service had yet to approve a permit.
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Previously, only marine life in California could be killed if it proved that the animal had targeted endangered fish several times.
Sea lizards can eat a maximum of 44% of the river’s spring chinook, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
Of the more than 22,000 public comments the government received about the permit application, almost none were its proponents of killing the sea lions, Q13 FOX reported.
“Killing sea lions is like putting a Band-Aid on a bleed, it will not stop what is causing the bleed,” said Sharon Young, director of marine affairs for The Humane Society, according to Q13. “If you do not address the real root of your problem, then tackle it with something else that seems like you are doing something, it just makes you do something, but you are not taking any meaningful action.”
Kessina Lee, regional director of Southwest for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, voted in favor of the department’s request to kill the sea lions. “To do all the other things we do regarding habitat and hydropower and fisheries management and not to tackle predation in a meaningful way is really such a big piece of the puzzle for winning salmon that we have to tackle it, ‘she said.
Most of the sea lions will receive a lethal injection, according to Q13 FOX.
Doug Hatch, a scientific scientist at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said he believes the killing of marine life will be far below the limit, as only about 100 marine lions are normal in the area, reported Oregon Public Broadcasting.
He said other methods such as moving the sea lions have been tried in the past.
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“That you have no influence on the population growth of one species and we will improve the population growth of another species that is much more risky,” Hatch said.
