Stop Sea Lion Killing Plan

LINK: Sign Petition

The National Marine Fisheries Service recently authorized the killing of up to 85 federally protected sea lions this year at the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River in Oregon.

Federal and state officials claim they have to kill sea lions to protect endangered salmon. But sea lions are not the main threat to endangered salmon on the Columbia river - dams, habitat loss and humans are.

Consider the facts:

• Sea lions kill between 0.4% and 4.2% of salmon and steelhead returning to the Columbia River each year;
• Federal dams on the Snake River kill over 15% of returning steelhead and salmon adults each year;
• Oregon and Washington states, which requested permission to kill sea lions, proposed increasing fishing quotas from 9% to 12% of the 2008 salmon run.

A federal judge is set to rule on this plan on May 8th, and until then no sea lions may be killed. Yet six federally protected sea lions were just found shot to death on the Columbia River at Bonneville Dam. Make sure no more sea lions die - tell NMFS to abandon its plan to allow killing of sea lions on the Columbia River!