Non-breeding Sea Lions

Over the last several weeks we have had numerous discussions with Rob Maxey regarding the aggression displayed by sea lions as fishermen in Oregon go after salmon and steelhead. Rob has recounted numerous stories where guys who are fishing and catching, feel a huge tug, see their rod bend and then the tension is gone. They reel in a fish head. Where is the rest of their catch? In the belly of an aggressive sea lion. To make matters worse, Rob tells of situations where these massive mammals actually jump into boats. He feels that it is only a matter of time before someone gets very seriously injured either by falling into the water amongst the sea lions or a confrontation on the boat. There is one other little observation up Rob's sleeve. "In Bonneville they are having problems with the sea lions. It is the sturgeon as much as the salmon that they are doing there because everything is spawning there. They are finding that the male sea lions are putting on 1000 pounds in a month when the sprinklers are running. Those sea lions then go offshore to the breeding rookeries and they are the biggest sea lions around so they take everything else away but they are so fast they can't breed. It is really hurting the species by not managing them and pushing them away in certain areas. I'm pontificating. I say shoot a few problem animals and the whole problem will go away.