This month the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife began relocating California sea lions from the lower Willamette River to the Oregon Coast in an attempt to reduce extinction risk to wild Willamette steelhead.

On Feb. 7, ODFW biologists captured the first California sea lion on the Willamette. This male has been coming to Willamette Falls to feed almost every year since 2009, including every year for the past five years, said ODFW.

Following his release on a beach south of Newport, he was back at Willamette Falls in three days, a swim of more than 200 miles. A second sea lion was relocated Feb. 8 and returned in six days.

Capturing sea lions on the lower Willamette is the latest attempt by ODFW to reduce pinniped predation on the lower Willamette. The agency also tried non-lethal hazing of sea lions for three years starting in 2010 but concluded those efforts were ineffective.

ODFW now considers sea lion predation “one of the greatest threats to the survival of wild winter Willamette steelhead as well as native chinook, lamprey and sturgeon.”

Last year, the number of wild steelhead that crossed Willamette Falls fell to an all-time low of just 512 adult fish, while marine mammals were responsible for taking an estimated 25 percent of the run. So far this year’s steelhead are tracking slightly better but are still far below the ten-year average.

ODFW is trying to avert a situation similar to the one at Ballard Locks in Seattle in the 1980s where a small group of California sea lions wiped out the Lake Washington native steelhead population by preying on them while they congregated in a concentrated area that made them susceptible to predation.

To preserve and protect wild salmon and steelhead populations, ODFW has federal authorization to euthanize sea lions with a documented record of killing salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River around Bonneville Dam.

On Feb. 14, ODFW captured a male sea lion that was authorized for removal under this federal authorization and this sea lion was euthanized Feb. 15. Other sea lions with a documented record of killing salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River around Bonneville Dam that move into the Willamette and are captured in ODFW’s traps may also be taken back to a secure facility at Bonneville and euthanized.

Also:

— CBB, Dec. 1, 2017, “NOAA Invites Comments On Lethal Removal Of Sea Lions At Willamette Falls; Threat To Listed Steelhead”http://www.cbbulletin.com/439899.aspx

–CBB, September 22, 2017, “Biologists Tell Council That Sea Lion Predation Puts Willamette Winter Steelhead At Extinction Risk,”http://www.cbbulletin.com/439601.aspx

— CBB, Aug. 11, 2017, “ODFW Analysis: With Continued Sea Lion Predation Willamette Winter Steelhead At Risk Of Extinction”http://www.cbbulletin.com/439416.aspx

–CBB, June 23, 2017, “Oregon To Seek Permit To Lethally Remove Salmonid-Eating Sea Lions At Willamette Falls,”http://www.cbbulletin.com/439150.aspx

–CBB, July 15, 2016, “NOAA Re-Authorizes States To Lethally Remove Salmon-Eating California Sea Lions At Bonneville Dam,”http://www.cbbulletin.com/437133.aspx

–CBB, June 17, 2016, “Final 2016 Pinniped Report: Sea Lion Salmon Take Astoria To Bonneville Dam Could Be 20 Percent Of Run,”http://www.cbbulletin.com/436941.aspx

AddThis Button BEGIN
AddThis Button END