The Associated Press has this additional detail about the six dead sea lions — only one of them was on the government’s “most wanted list” for capture due to salmon eating. Two were endangered Steller sea lions and one was a California sea lion pup.
The mystery of what killed six sea lions found dead in traps at the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam remains unsolved. Reports Monday and Tuesday suggested the animals were shot inside the cages, which are being used to trap the animals so they can be shipped to aquariums and marine parks. The sea lions are being removed in an effort to boost ailing salmon stocks (the sea lions are blamed for eating approximately 4 percent of the fish).
A press release this morning from NOAA’s Fisheries Service states:
Preliminary results of a necropsy, conducted beginning late Sunday night and completed late Monday, found no evidence of recent gunshot wounds. The necropsies did identify numerous shallow puncture wounds in one animal that are consistent with sea lion bite marks.
An x-ray examination conducted yesterday identified metal fragments in soft tissue around the neck area of two of the animals. In addition, a metal slug was found in the blubber of one animal. However, neither the fragments nor the slug appear to have caused death, and may have been associated with old wounds.
People with any information on the sea lion deaths are urged to report it:
Call the NOAA Enforcement Hotline at 1-800-853-1964.
NOAA officials said they would continue to the investigation “to determine how the animals died and how the doors to the traps on which they were found could have been closed.”
The trapping was put on hold following the deaths of the four California sea lions and two Stellar sea lions. A seventh animal died following a medical exam after it was captured.
The states of Oregon and Washington got approval this year to trap or kill up to 85 of the California sea lions annually. An animal rights group challenged those plans, so a judge is allowing for the capture of sea lions that are relocated, but not the killing until the case is resolved (see earlier blog on the legal issues).