Humane Society seeks to block sea lion killing
PORTLAND – The Humane Society of the United States has filed a request for an emergency injunction asking a federal appeals court to block the government from killing protected sea lions at Bonneville Dam.
U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman rejected a request for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday even though he said the Humane Society might prevail in court with a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the states of Oregon and Washington.
The ruling had left open the possibility the states could begin killing the sea lions on Friday. But Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Friday it would be next week at the earliest before any action is taken.
The Humane Society filed the injunction request late Thursday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Brian Gorman, fisheries service spokesman in Seattle, said plans called for trapping the animals and possibly sending about 20 of them to zoos, if they meet zoo health standards. Otherwise, they could be euthanized.
The Humane Society, however, fears the states easily could reject those plans and simply begin shooting the sea lions, said spokeswoman Sharon Young.
“They’ve been saying in the press they have places for 19 to 20 of them, but we’ve been told that’s in fact not true,” Young said.
Gorman, however, said Friday the government has “firm commitments” from the zoos.
“The first choice is to place these animals,” Gorman said. But he noted that the states “still have the authorization to use lethal means” if wildlife and fishery managers decide it’s necessary.
Even though the California sea lions are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, an amendment allows the federal government to authorize killing problem animals shown to have a “significant negative impact” on salmon runs. Oregon and Washington requested the authorization in 2006.
Indian tribes and fishermen say the sea lions are eating too many salmon at Bonneville Dam, about 50 to 100 a day. The impact is estimated at between 0.4 percent and 4.2 percent of the spring chinook salmon run.
In seeking the injunction, the Humane Society argued the “significant negative impact” standard applies only to the overall fish runs, not to whether there is an impact on fishermen.
The society also argues that authorizing the killing of up to 85 sea lions a year for the next five years will cause “irreparable harm” to the environment and affect recreation along the river, while saving at most 2,000 fish.
Young also said the states may not be able to recover the bodies of some sea lions after shooting them, and that some may escape with serious wounds that cause them to suffer before dying.
In his Wednesday ruling, Mosman said damage to salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act trumped the potential harm to sea lions.