Have you ever seen a seal catch a sturgeon?

[Pete]

I was anchored in the Columbia a week or so ago, running kwikfish when the water behind my boat exploaded as a sealion erupted with a 30 inch sturgeon in it's mouth. Have you ever seen a seal or sealion kill a sturgeon? Does anyone have pictures of that happening? I thought sturgeon only had one predator, but I think I might have to rethink that.

[CATCH AND EAT]

Pete I have witnessed this up at terminal 6 back in late December and early January. Sealions love those tender young'ns and just rip the daylights out of them. Saw it last weekend in the Willy too. Them suckers will eat anything.

Now selling harvest tags for sealions......I wish.

Are you really, really sure it was not Tacklebuster [img]graemlins/hearton.gif[/img] in a seal suit?

:smile:

[Phishin Phool]

I've never seen it personally Pete but have seen a few posts on here of other Ifishers that have.

--PP

[Fish Hawg]

Yes, My brother and I saw a pair of sea lions catch at least 5 sturgeon. I know they were different fish ; because the seals would drift a bout a mile thrashing the fish. Then the pair would swim back up with in 45-60' of the boat, and go down and come back with another one. [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]

I thought they would be great target practice for the old flairs out on the flair gun :grin: J/K :tongue: ....Ross

[Hell-B]

I work right at the falls in O.C.. Never saw it happen until last year. Saw it twice and one fish was well over 6 foot. My thinking is that these sea lions and seals are so used to getting salmon, that they come up river too early some times. So sturgeon fill their needs until smiley gets here. :depressed:

[love2fish]

Pete,
Someone posted a picture of a sealion munching on a sturgeon a couple of weeks ago. I'll take a look to see if I can find it.

Here's the link, but the pictures have been removed.

web page

love2fish

[ 03-03-2004, 06:04 PM: Message edited by: love2fish ]

[Killertraylor]

About 3 years ago I saw a sealion with a really nice sized keeper, probably a 4 footer, in it's mouth down below the bridge in Chinook. The lion tossed it around for awhile but the sturgeon got away. Maybe they eat them just to clean their teeth?

[KalamaSpark]

ive seen sea lions eatting sturgeon many times by trojan. they follow the smelt up river and hang out by the steal scape dock. they eat smelt till they are gone, then springers. and sturgeon.I've seen them eat lie a snake, eatting a mouse, head first.

[Cowlitzfisherman]

I received this email last week about this problem!
It said: "Hi guys, Find a message I sent out last week along
with some startling photos. Feel free to pass these on and maybe they will
fall into the right hands. So this is it!"

[MasterCaster]

like this?



I posted this on the sealion carnage thread about a month ago. I actually had this fish hooked and the sealion took it. Not easy to break off a sealion running away on 65# power pro!

Jon :smile: :grin: :smile:

[HntnFsh]

Ive seen it in the big C afew times.I used to fish the Cowlitz for sturgeon alot.Usually about this time of year.I cant count how many times I've seen seals and sea lions rip the belly out of a sturgeon.Eat that then go for another.Pretty disgusting if you ask me.

[skeezer]

they probally get more fish then me :blush:

[Flatfish]

We had one munch 3 diamondbacks about a month ago.Took about 30 minutes. And there are 3 bites in a shaker sized fish to a sealion.

Fishing was pretty hot until he showed up. Then it just stopped.

Mark and the dog.

[Dipnet]

I think I'd have to agree with ******!! :grin: Tacklebuster was probably out doing a little last minute recon for the Sturgeon Derby!!!

Dipnet :grin:

[Tacklebuster]

:grin: [img]graemlins/hearton.gif[/img]

[Dan9113]

Saw it happen at least 6 times saturday on the Columbia. Never close enough that we could really ID the fish but they would thrash them around for a couple of minutes. Easy to spot as they had a flock of gulls all around picking up the pieces. There were several working the area below the fisheries. It is amazing how many more sea lions you see every year. They are getting way to comfortable in our rivers

[Killertraylor]

I think they should give you a sealion tag each year with your salmon/sturgeon tag. :shocked:

I've seen reports that they will eat 15 or more adult spring salmon in a day (maybe this is only when the fish are in thick?) I've personally watched 3 of them eat over 30 springers during a 6 hour ebb tide near Astoria. If there are 100 of them in the river from Astoria to the falls, that's 1500 fish a day or 135,000 in 3 months - that's more than the sportfishing and commercial catch combined!

Don't know if these numbers are at all accurate. I wonder if anyone has ever done a comprehensive study of Spring Chinook mortality just from Sealions.

[sunshinefisherman]

I heard a rumor last year that the state is considering limited hunting opportunities for seals. :whazzup:

Does anyone have any information on this??

I would love to pop one of these things with the ol 45-70 :grin:
Bow, arrow and float would be fun too! [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

[FISH EYED FOOL]

I have heard that they also like to eat shad filled with rat poison when thrown to them. never would try that myself but I have heard of it being done.

[Blue Water 23]

It's a good thing that seals only eat hatchery fish or they could put a dent in the native Snake River Fish.

100 seals in the river X 10 fish a day equals 1000 springers.

That would be about 200 natives per day, or about 12,000 natives during the season. The seals would kill more natives than all of the fisherman combined.

That would be devastating. Good thing they aren't a problem because they only eat hatchery fish.

Blame it on the fishermen!