On Mon, 25 Sep 1995, John Shelton - ext. 4051 wrote:

>
> People are truly amazing. We can allow the slaughter of untold numbers of
> deer, quail, pheasant, ducks and other wild creatures by hunters without
> batting an eye; but the thought of shooting a nuisance feral cat or blowing
> away five or six Sea Lions which are decimating a salmon run causes a panic.
>
> John Shelton
> Portland, Oregon

John,

As one opposed to the shooting of the California Sea Lions at the
Ballard Locks, I can assure you that *my* concern was not with the fact that
five or six sea lions would die, but that the sea lions were not the root
cause of the problem. Making them the scapegoats for problems caused by
poorly designed dams, development, and general habitat destruction seemed
like a poor strategy.

Incidentally, if you are referring to the Seattle case, the concern over
the sea lions was for the steelhead run, not the salmon. The steelhead
run through Lake Washington is down to about 150 individuals, and people
worried that this run, toppling on the brink of extinction, might be
pushed over the edge by the Sea Lions that prey on them as they mill
about, searching for the ill designed fish ladder around the Ballard
Locks.

Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu