Sealion with radio tag

[fishnxtc]

I was fishing out of St Helens and I saw a sealion or seal I don't know the difference, but it had a radio collar and a few numbers on it's back. Does anyone know why or who is doing this tracking of the sealion. By the way the number on it's back was 37 with a big circle maybe the circle is a target.......Chris

PS Sturgeon fishing sucked. Could have dipped your limit of smelt floating by.

[Drachir]

I can't say for sure, but it may have been tagged because it was a problem animal. If it was a Sea Lion, they are easy to tell, because they are huge, perphaps 6'-7' in length, and maybe weighing 1000#. I have seen a news story a year or so back about radio tagging some problem Sea Lions that kept returning to the Seattle area's Ballard Locks. They captured them and took them down to California and released them, only to see them return to Ballrd Locks in as fast as 1 week or so. I sure hope this animal you saw was not one of the problem ones. I sure wish the circle could be used as a target!! :smile:

[fishnxtc]

This was a very large sea lion. Well over 6 or 7' just wanted to know if they are doing a study on them or are they going to project when the run has arrived by following this guy around and watch him eat salmon..............Chris

[Stratocaster]

Sea lions have little ears and seals dont, its hard to tell the size at a distance with only a head sticking out.

[Clamman]

California Sealions are tagged on the Columbia River in the Astoria area. They are also tagged in the Puget Sound area and some in the California mid-coast area. They are given flipper tags, a brand on the back and an either yellow, orange or red patch with the same numbers as the brand. This project on the Columbia has been existance since 1997. To date they have tagged just under 400 individual animals, all male. Recently, radio tags have been put on animals that are observed at the dams and falls. A good sized California Sea Lion male weighs about 800 pounds and is about 7 foot long. Steller Sea Lions, which are listed with the ESA, are much bigger. They can weigh about a ton and are over 10 feet in length. They are rarely seen in the river.


Clam

[happybrew]

I wonder what they'd do if the radio collar was removed and thrown into a hatchery?? :shocked:

[fishnxtc]

Thanks clamman, I was hoping someone had info on this.Do you know any of the results or findings from tagging these animals........Chris

[Boedy]

I wonder why don’t they shoot them then study it in depth.

Kind of like the Japanese scientific study of whales and their ongoing research into the effects of drift nets on the ocean ecosystem.

The whole of Asia does so much good for the world’s wildlife look at their work with Bear gallbladders, Tiger bones, Rhino Horn and ivory Study study study.

I wonder how many species they can study into extinction in the next 30 years?

No matter to them Im sure as long as they taste good or if their ground up bones can cure a headache or upset stomach they are fair game right.

To bad they don’t acquire a taste for Sea lions and seals I bet they to would be on the brink of extinction in a few short years too. Maybe they just haven’t tried them yet, we could ship a few over to them for a taste test maybe it would work.

[ 02-21-2003, 07:03 PM: Message edited by: Boedy ]

[skeezer]

[img]graemlins/idea.gif[/img] could be working for the navy, in some homeland security thing checking boats.. [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img]