Yesterday, monitors with the Sea Lion Defense Brigade made the annual pilgrimage to the dam. It was strangely silent. Even the hazers were standing down, as it was Sunday. We saw no California sea lions up there yet at all. We did see two Stellars playing in the current just below the dam, and at least two others resting in the slower water down by Strawberry Island. Despite the government's best effort to get the Stellars de-listed from their threatened and endangered species status, the gentle and gigantic Stellars are still protected this year, and cannot legally be killed. (They are not safe, though. Vigilante fishermen kill more sea lions illegally every year than the government killed last year. These huge, friendly animals make easy targets for their predations.)
We also saw two beautiful bald eagles, hunting fish from a tall tree just below the dam. Nature is beautiful. But irony stings: a friend, upon hearing about bald eagles eating salmon, remarked, "What are they gonna do, kill every predator on the river? Why can't they just stop over-fishing?!" Indeed.
In any event, humans will soon swamp this river in an annual glut that greedily displaces every other (natural, native) species on the river just so the fishermen can get get get get theirs. Yep. The celebration of the circle of life will be broken again, as every spring, by greedy men clutching beer cans, out to get more than they need. Such is life.
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Guests are Matt Rossell, at that time with the local chapter of In Defense of Animals and Cat, Sea Lion Defense Brigade.
For those interested in a local Native American perspective on this issue, this is a link to another Public Access program, "Native Nations."
Program begins with a brief interview with a member of Northwest Student Coaltion, speaking about police accountability issues in the Portland area. If one wishes, they can skip ahead 13 minutes to view the interview about the seal lions.
Here, representatives from Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission address their concerns about sea lions feeding on salmon at Bonneville dam on the Columbia River in Oregon in particular and salmon recovery in general.