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March 2 , 2007, Oregon Dept of Fish
and Wildlife SALEM, Ore.—
For the third straight year, the
Oregon and Washington fish and
wildlife departments are hazing sea
lions to deter them from preying on
runs of threatened salmon and
steelhead below Bonneville Dam on the
Columbia River.
Using non-lethal deterrents such as
crackershells, rubber buckshot and
underwater firecrackers, crews will be
working from boats seven days per week
through May 31 in an effort to drive
the marine mammals away from fish
congregated below the dam. The hazing
area extends six miles downstream from
the dam to Marker 85
“As in previous years, our goal is
to change these animals’ behavior,”
said Jeff Koenings, director of the
Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife (WDFW). “Predation by sea
lions on fish in the tailrace of
Bonneville Dam is a fairly recent
phenomenon, and we don’t want any more
of them to learn that behavior. We
want them to recognize that this is
not a good place to find an easy
meal.”
Like last year, the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW)
and WDFW will conduct the hazing in
cooperation with the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) --the agency
that is funding the ESA
salmon/steelhead protection effort--,
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Wildlife Services Program, Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission,
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
operators of the dam. Hazing methods
will remain the same as last year, but
this year’s seven-day-per-week
schedule marks a significant
escalation in the effort to deter
predation by sea lions, said Sandra
Jonker, regional WDFW wildlife
manager.
“We want to give non-lethal
deterrence every chance to succeed,”
Jonker said.
California sea lion numbers have
burgeoned since the 1970s. A September
wildlife survey by WDFW documented
1,200 California sea lions at the
mouth of the Columbia River, among an
estimated West Coast population of
300,000 animals. Despite previous
hazing efforts by Oregon and
Washington in 2005 and 2006, the
number of sea lions entering the
Columbia River—and their rate of
predation on ESA-listed salmon and
steelhead below Bonneville Dam—has
increased significantly since 2001,
according to surveys by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. Estimated
predation on salmon and steelhead
immediately below Bonneville Dam has
reached over 3 percent of the total
upriver run in some years, according
to surveys conducted by the Corps.
“In addition to the impact on
salmon and steelhead, we remain very
concerned about the predation on white
sturgeon,” said Charlie Corrarino,
ODFW Conservation and Recovery Program
Manager. “Broodstock male and female
sturgeon are being preyed upon at an
alarming rate,” Corrarino said.
In February, for the second year,
Oregon and Washington conducted a
separate state-funded hazing campaign
designed to protect those
slow-maturing fish, some of which can
carry as many as three million eggs.
But the primary focus of the current
hazing effort is to protect migrating
salmon and steelhead, many of which
are listed for protection under the
federal Endangered Species Act.
Upper Columbia River spring chinook
are listed as “endangered” under the
ESA; lower Columbia River chinook and
steelhead, middle Columbia River
steelhead, Snake River spring/summer
chinook, and Snake River Basin
steelhead are all listed as
“threatened.” Concerned about
predation on those populations, fish
managers in Oregon, Washington and
Idaho jointly applied last November to
NMFS for permission to use lethal
means – if necessary – to remove
individual California sea lions that
prey on chinook salmon and steelhead
below Bonneville Dam. The application
was submitted under Section 120 of the
Marine Mammal Protection Act, which
allows lethal removal of individual
pinnipeds that negatively impact
federally protected salmonid stocks.
NOAA Fisheries is soliciting public
comments on the states’ application
through April 2.
“In the meantime, we need to do
everything we can to protect our fish
resources,” Jonker said. |
