US: Unprecedented slaughter of hundreds of wild sea lions to begin in Pacific Northwest

[Emily]

https://www.adn.com/nation-world/202...and-steelhead/

Hundreds of sea lions to be killed in Columbia River watershed in effort to save endangered salmon and steelhead
Author: Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times Updated: 2 days ago
....
California sea lions have been killed for preying on salmon under previous control programs, but nothing at this scale has been implemented before. Under the new program, it’s open season for government fish managers under the permit on any sea lion anywhere in the kill zone, any time of year, and in any number, up to a maximum of 300 Steller sea lions, and 540 California sea lions within the five years of the operation.

Training and new equipment will be needed to handle Steller, which are more aggressive and bigger — up to 2,500 pounds — than California sea lions, Lee said.

Use of firearms is prohibited. Instead, a combination of trapping and darting would be used, with the kill administered by lethal injection of tranquilizing drugs. The intended goal is humane euthanasia. [It is NOT euthanasia to kill a healthy being who is bothering you. - E.]

But it won’t be pretty: poles, gaffs, squeeze traps, cages and more will be needed to isolate, contain, restrain, kill and remove the animals from what is their natural habitat. The sea lions are after all only doing what comes naturally, as they follow succulent salmon to dams that create bottlenecks that make the fish easy pickings.

“It’s like fish in a barrel, you could say,” said Tim Ragen, former executive director of the federal Marine Mammal Commission, and another task force member who voted to approve the program.
...
Sharon Young is senior strategist for marine wildlife for the Humane Society of the U.S. She voted against the program. “You can’t kill your way out of this problem,” she said of 13 dwindling fish runs on the Columbia and Snake.

Kill these sea lions, and more will just take their place, as other factors continue to push salmon into extinction, she said.

“It is not going to make any difference, and you will have killed animals for nothing,”Young said. “We tend to knee-jerk turn to some lethal solution to a conflict with any predator. But it doesn’t work without wiping out the population.”

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed by Congress in 1972 after seals, sea lions and others animals were hunted nearly to extinction in part because of conflicts with fisheries, she noted...

https://blog.humanesociety.org/2016/...sea-lions.html

Eating Salmon Is a Crime – But Only If You’re a Sea Lion
April 21, 2016 By Wayne Pacelle
...
The sea lions contribute only a small percentage of the total take of chinook salmon. We humans are responsible for a far larger share of the mortality. Salmon return each spring to spawn in the tributaries of the Columbia River, and the greatest cause of their deaths is the series of dams and blocked passages that threaten their ability to travel and reproduce. In 2015, a court ordered the states to fix hundreds of barriers built under state roads and highways that block access for migrating salmon, yet action to comply with that decree has been slow and grudging. What’s more, fishermen are allowed to catch and kill up to 17 percent of the salmon in the spring run. Many of the fish that die are from endangered stocks.

Yet another human-caused factor contributing to the salmon’s troubles are non-native bass and walleye, intentionally dumped in the river to create more recreational opportunities for sport fishermen. A report by government scientists found that these non-native fish eat up to two million young salmon each year and compete with the adults for spawning habitat.

Despite all these threats, the size of the spring salmon run is not declining. A 2015 government report to Congress found the spring spawning salmon runs are “stable.” As a matter of fact, far from being decimated by sea lions, the spring run size in 2015 was the third highest since 2001.

 

[bertrand789]

Merci Emilie,

Les am?ricains, collectivement, sont vraiment ?trange.

Soit "rassur?e", en Europe et, en particulier, en France, on est aussi con, car le respect des fleuves , franchement:

https://aufildeleauenmeuse.eu/vu-le-...peu-de-channa/

Sauf que, ce que l'on fait dans ce dossier, n'est pas loin de ce que l'on fait dans d'autres dossiers, comme le covid ...

 

[Emily]

I hope it wasn't introduced in France yet.
https://www.wistv.com/2019/10/29/scdnr-officials-warn-fish-that-can-survive-land/

 

[bertrand789]

J'ai suivi pendant des ann?es, les donn?es gestion faune sauvage US, mais d?sormais, je ne peut plus : je suis en Europe ...

En Belgique, pendant la crise peste porcine africaine, il a ?t? captur? et euthanasi?, plus de 1500 raton laveur (Procyon lotor), mais aucun lien officiel . Les militaires am?ricains ont de mauvaises habitudes , ils se d?placent avec famille et tout le reste et cela laisse , bien des traces ... Comme les allemands n'ont rien fait , certains, dont je suis, le disent ...

Pour le dossier Channa , j'ai du r?diger cette fiche, par hasard... Et quand on voie , ce que font les f?d?rations de p?che ( donc les "autorit?s") , pourquoi les p?cheurs ne seraient pas aussi b?te ?


C'est dur au pied des barrages de faire une zone sans "sea lions" , il y a plein de moyens. Et contrairement aux humains , eux ils apprennent vite ...