Cormorant ruling...

rogerdodger
rogerdodger
alright, sounds like the population reduction and nest destruction plan is closer to a go..
 
GaryP1958
GaryP1958
I heard they tast like, well, chicken!
 
B
BaldTexan
Maybe some of the chicken restaurant chains should put in a bid for the spoils! Fast food burger chains should lobby for and put in bids for a "fresh water" sea lion reduction.
 
jamisonace
jamisonace
Good news!
 
D
DrTheopolis
Don't see why they didn't issue tags.
 
jamisonace
jamisonace
Good point. I wonder how they eat.
 
Raincatcher
Raincatcher
They're pretty much sea lions with feathers. :sad:
A judge has refused to block a plan to shoot more than 10,000 double-crested cormorants in the Columbia River estuary.

The plan was released earlier this year by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It wants to stop cormorants from eating millions of baby salmon.

Conservation groups sought a preliminary injunction. They say hydroelectric dams - not cormorants - are the main threat to salmon. The groups filed suit in April against the Corps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Wildlife Services agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Corps said Wildlife Services will manage the killing.The plan also calls for destroying 26,000 nests on East Sand Island.
 
O
OnTheFly
What do you think of those apples, PETA? And I wonder what a sea lion burger tastes like?

Ok, granted. When it comes to fish migration, dams are a problem. Even with the most efficient fish ladders the fish still pile up and become easy pickings for predators and the miles of slack water behind dams prevent smolts from getting down stream faster and further decreases their chances of survival. However, our country needs electricity and until we find better ways to produce it, hydro is here to stay. When it comes right down to it, if we had to choose between fish or having the lights on, the fish would loose. But God knows we don't want that so we need to manage fish protection in other ways. If we create an unnatural barrier that changes the way nature works, it upsets the balance so I believe it's up to us to compensate for it by managing the consequences of our actions. That is, by controlling the over abundance of fish eating things that would not be there in such numbers if we hadn't built concrete walls along fish routes.

Although we have little control or understanding of what happens to salmon in the ocean, we do know that thousands of birds and sea lions take a substantial chunk out of the fish population. This is something we can observe and do something about and sometimes it's an easy decision to make. I am thoroughly in favor of managing bird and sea lion populations even if it only saves (according to PETA) 5% of the fish. Five percent out of a million is still a big number and it will allow us to keep the lights on for a little while longer.
 
O
OnTheDrop
Well put sir^^^
 
E
espencer757
The fact of the matter, the sea lions are introduced species, albeit they are "self introduced". I'm not sure about the birds, the can flock anywhere the food is. Sea lions are a salt water mammal, and spending the extended time in the fresh water is not natural and we'll damage their internals over time. However, because of the over abundance of seals and sea lions at the river opening, they are migrating to where they don't have to compete no matter what it does to their body. Now I see myself as a conservationist. Most responsible fishermen (and hunters) are. They have to be too ensure good fishing and hunting every year. I don't want to see the sea lions and birds killed, but we have to put things back into balance. I feel they should give tags and allow those that want to hunt the animals hunt them, as long as the animal is put to use and not just left to die and rot.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
D
DrTheopolis
espencer757 said:
The fact of the matter, the sea lions are introduced species, albeit they are "self introduced".

There were sea lions and seals observed up into the Gorge long before the dams were built, although nothing like the numbers of today.
 
E
espencer757
That's what I learned, but in reading further, it was found that they followed the fish up the river, and then went back to the ocean, rarely spending more than a few weeks in the river system.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
D
DrTheopolis
Petty sure that's absolutely correct.

20+ years ago, I saw seals quite a ways up the Clackamas. Haven't seen any in forever. Seems like less seals and more sea lions.

They've become a strange phenomenon.
 

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