Deadly force should be option against sea lions

The sides have squared off in the salmon vs. sea lions battle.

In the salmon’s corner are the states of Washington, Oregon and Idaho; Indian tribes; and the Endangered Species Act.

In the sea lions’ corner are the Humane Society of the United States and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

So far, the sea lions are winning.

They station themselves below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River and dine on salmon runs to their hearts’ content. “Nonlethal hazing” tactics – shooting them with rubber buckshot, chasing them in boats, harassing them with rockets and firecrackers, and blasting them with irritating sounds underwater – have had little effect.

Now it’s time for the pro-salmon forces to bring in the big guns. Literally.

Washington Congressmen Brian Baird, D-Vancouver; Norm Dicks, D-Belfair; and Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, are proposing legislation to make it easier to kill some of the sea lions that are taking such a bite out of salmon runs. Instead of going through a review by a special task force, which could take years, a sea lion hunting permit could be granted by the secretary of commerce after 90 days of consideration.

Yes, shooting sea lions is a distasteful business. But the pinnipeds as a species are no longer in trouble, as they were when the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972. Back then there were fewer than 10,000 California sea lions; today their numbers have soared to about 300,000. As their population has expanded, so has their hunting range. They’ve made their presence known at Seattle’s Ballard Locks as well as on the Columbia – where they were rarely seen in earlier years.

The Humane Society is well-intentioned in its defense of the sea lions, arguing that allowing more hunting would only distract from what it considers a bigger culprit: the Northwest’s network of dams. No one disputes that dams are part of the problem, but the Bonneville dam isn’t coming down anytime soon. Decreasing the number of predators taking salmon below the dam is a more viable alternative.

Targeting individual sea lions during key salmon spawning times has a place as part of a larger salmon-recovery strategy. No one should consider it to be the answer to the Northwest’s dwindling salmon stocks.

It does little good to spend billions – as the region has done – making it easier for salmon to navigate Northwest rivers and restoring salmon habitat if sea lions are able to destroy 3,000 to 4,000 potential salmon by eating one female before she spawns. In the bigger scheme of things, the tradeoff of a few sea lions for a lot of salmon is more than reasonable.