This piece is not original. I copied it from an Anchorage newspaper. But, it's worth repeating!

Boycott Oregon: Save sea lions

Published: May 15th, 2005
Last Modified: May 15th, 2005 at 12:05 AM

WE AWAIT WITH some eagerness word from the Friends of Animals in Connecticut on what the organization’s position will be toward killing sea lions in the Columbia River near the Bonneville Dam.

The group, as you know, is going full tilt on its campaign urging tourists to cancel trips to Alaska because the state condones killing wolves in selected areas of the state.

Will Friends of Animals likewise urge people to boycott Oregon and Washington, where four Indian tribes are asking wildlife managers to cull more than 100 sea lions that are gobbling up huge numbers of chinook salmon,smelt and other fish?

In past years, the sea lions have gorged on salmon below Bonneville Dam. This year, for the first time, they have invaded the dam’s fish ladders — and the salmon toll has been even greater than before.

Reported the Associated Press in Portland: “Biologists with the Army Corps of Engineers estimated last year that sea lions ate about 4,000 chinook salmon passing the dam, about 2 percent of the upriver run. Large numbers of sea lions and harbor seals also ply the mouth of the river and boldly take salmon from fishing nets and lines.”

One problem, the AP said, is that the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 makes it a federal offense to harass, injure or kill California sea lions. That’s complicated by the fact that a dozen stocks of salmon and steelhead also are listed as threatened or endangered in the Columbia Basin.

The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Council, speaking for its members who depend on salmon for subsistence purposes, says the states have the authority to seek federal permission to trap or kill individual sea lions proven to be damaging to the fishery.

In short, state game management officials could be granted the option to kill some sea lions to make fishing more viable.

Sounds to us just like what Alaska game managers are doing in approving wolf kills in certain areas to save the moose population.

The animal rights folks think that’s terrible, and protesting the program in Alaska is a sure way to boost their national fund-raising effort among gullible but well-meaning people throughout the country.

The question now is, will they try the same against the hopes of the Indian tribes of Washington and Oregon?

Probably not.

Slippery sea lions, we suspect, are not quite as cuddly and cute as wolves. And Washington and Oregon don’t have the same firepower as Alaska, when it comes to fund-raising.