Sea lions??? Seen 'em???

[Digifish]

Anybody seen any lately on the CR? Do their palettes not prefer URB's?

[Pete]

Saw about 100 at Tillamook last weekend. They haul out on the sand bars at low tide. I'm not sure where they go at high tide. Maybe they turn into seagulls or pelicans.

[clacksteel]

I saw a lot of them on the Rogue...took 3/4 of the salmon hooked!

[Silver Hilton]

Probably more food available in the salt.

[Striper Club]

Saw one in the salt just outside the Nehalem jaw last Sunday...

[jetjockey]

Most of the sealions you will be seing this time of year are young immature males. The mature males are down south during this time of year for breeding season. Thats why there are so few this time of year. That's also the reason the springer runs get way overestimated and the fall runs don't (if anything the last couple years the fall runs have exceeded expectations). Thats also the reason the sealions destroyed the native winter run steelhead that used to pass through the ballard locks in Feb, Mar, and Apr, but didn't touch the run of sockey that was 20x's bigger in July! The sealions are destroying the CR springer run!!!! Look for another huge overestimate again this spring! Probably about 180,000 fish like the last 2 years!

[Thumper]

The sealions are destroying the CR springer run!!!! Look for another huge overestimate again this spring!

Y'know, one of these years we are gonna wake up and start listening to this guy. He has been dead right now for two years at least.

[jetjockey]

Ya know what though. Here is the sad thing. Our government will always blame something else on the lose of our springer run on the CR. Do you think they will ever really admit that they have been spending billions on Salmon recovery, yet, one of the biggest problems (with the springer run at least) is a problem that our government created by over protecting the sealions!!! They will never eat crow and admit to that, because they don't want the political fallout that will come with fixing the problem! I'm not trying to make this a political arguement one way or the other. Just pointing out the facts. We may never see a recovered springer run on the CR. Its really, really sad!

[Silver Hilton]

Jet, i think that is oversimplifying. The fish biologists don't give a hoot about the Marine Mammals act. They couldn't care less whether they have to say sealions are at fault. In Seattle, the biologists were quite vocal about the sealions being a problem. To think of the government as some monolithic thing that speaks with one voice and has one thought is silly. Congress passed the marine mammals act, based on lobbying and input from various groups. The BPA, which is very concerned about the salmon counts, because it affects their funding, couldn't care less about the Marine Mammals act. You think a biologist that works for BPA, who wants the fish runs to increase, so they can spill more water, is going to hesitate blaming the sealions if they can?
This spring fish counts were down throughout the river. If the sealions were at fault, there should have been lots of fish at the mouth, and many fewer at the dam. However, we saw broadly reduced amounts of fish, in the columbia, Willamette, and other tribs. We have also seen several other rivers having severely depressed runs this year. One of these was lake washington, where there was no significant sealion depradation and yet we saw 90% of the sockeye run vanish.

We also have seen lots of documentation of changes in ocean conditions/temperatures, creating a crash in the baitfish population. This actually makes sense as a possible root cause of the problem, but we don't see people sitting up and yelling about that, because it might be linked to global warming, and that would be politically unpopular to deal with, and might make us have to diss our republican administration, which is convinced that global warming is not happening, because we don't want to believe in it. You probably don't want to think about that, either, because it would mean we have to change things that we are doing, rather than go shoot some sealions.

Or, it might be something completely different. I think it is be a bit arrogant for us to proclaim from our keyboards that we know the answer, when people who have studied the problem all their lives are unable to come to a firm conclusion.

As someone once said, "For every problem, there is a simple, obvious answer, which is wrong."

[jetjockey]

I know the run on the CR was depressed everywhere. There are sealions everywhere in the river. I'm not talking about just below bonni. The study that said the sealions were taking 2% of the total run just below bonni was total crap. They need to do a study on the entire river. The lower CR was stacked with fish just before it closed. My dad had some of his best days springer fishing ever just befor it closed! So the fish entered the river. I understand all the other factors that go into determining a run of fish. Yes, ocean conditions will have a large play in that. But, don't you think its a little coincidental that in the last 2 years the biologists have been off by 180,000 fish for the springers. I could understand it if the percentage was the same, but it wasn't. 250 sealions eating 8 fish a day for 90 days equals 180,000 fish. A little coincidental don't you think. Throw ontop of that the the fall runs have been extremely strong the last 5 years, and it should start to open your eyes. I understand that there are other problems, but come on, even the worst models for predicting returning fish shouldn't be screwed up by that much. About 70% of the predictied springers didn't return. Compare that to the last couple of fall runs (as well as the summer runs this year that were underpredicted as well) that were underpredicted and I start to wonder, why is it that all the runs are doing extemely well except the ones that have sealions in the river at the same time?????

[Ethical hunter]

Saw about 100 at Tillamook last weekend. They haul out on the sand bars at low tide. I'm not sure where they go at high tide. Maybe they turn into seagulls or pelicans.

Hi Pete

Those were probably Harbor seals in Tillamook bay and yes, they probably do turn into pelicans at high tide.

HB

[Thumper]

A review of the Ifish files reveals that the U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers estimated that there were about 80 sea lions at Bonneville Dam during the 2005 springer run. They calculate that 3,052 salmonids were caught, representing 3.6 percent of the run.

Now imagine how many more were chowing down below Bonneville. We saw dozens daily, just in the Bachelor Island and St. Helens area. I'll bet there were hundreds more above and below us. That's 150 miles of river chock full of sea lions. Ask any fisherman who hunted springers if that is not true.

Some of the biologists maintained that sea lions do not hunt successfully when the fish are not constrained by the dam. A joke I hope. We did not see many going without.

Do the numbers. This is not nuclear science. If 80 sea lions take 3.6% of the run, then 800 would take 36%, and 1,600 would take 72%. Etc.

Any rational calculation would find that 50% or more of the springer run was taken by sea lions. And for some, very, very strange reason, none of the state biologists want to talk about it.

What's going on?

[SteelheadBum2]

Dead on Thumper

What is going on with our biologist

[Reservoir Dog]

I was on the Rogue last week and was appalled by the regularity and impunity with which the sea lions took hooked kings. I doubt that they took as many as 3/4 of the fish, but there's no question that the fishermen -- with all that they had invested in getting a fish on the hook, whether solo or with guides -- were serving a seal- and sea lion-feeding function.

I was just loitering while attending a family event (did a little bank fishing; hooked one for a brief few seconds) but my heart went out to boaters who lost their catches. The tragedy of it was that the fish most worth catching were the most likely to be lost because they took more time to bring in -- giving more time for the poaching sea lions to take advantage.

Time to bring in the harpoons, if you ask me.

[Fast Water]

Saw a Harbor Seal at the mouth of the Lewis today.