If people do not think the California sea lion population is out of control, take a look at this video posted today to Facebook from a commerical fishing boat. Warning: F-bomb is used.
This shows what happens when a predatory pinniped population is put on a no-harassment/no kill restrictions.Boaters,mariners, and fishermen are NOT ALLOWED in ANY way, to scare these sea rats away from their ships,vessels, boats, or gear,of any type: shrimp,crab,sport,charter,commercial. This video shows what happens when a historically balanced predator population is given free reign. This massive population explosion is now systemativcally eliminating 10 to 15 percent of wild, endangered salmon and steelhead runs every season below 33 foot high Willamette Falls.
Here, hundreds and hundred of Califoria sea lions cluster beside each fishing boat, to eat the catch from boats as it is hauled aboard, and to destroy fishing gear, rip nets, and so on. The numbers of these animals has reached an historical, all-time high--to the point that they no longer hunt for themselves, but congregate in the hundred to thousands (3,500 individuals counted on the Columbia River in Astoria, OR last summer!) and gorge themselves on fish caught by fishermen of all types (rod and reel, gillnet, purse seiner, trollers), or cluster at waterfalls, ship locks, and below hydroelectric dams, and at river mouths, laying waste to huge portions of salmon, steelhead, walleye, and sturgeon populations.