Steller sea lions munching sturgeon at record time at Bonneville .

Steller sea lions munching sturgeon at record time at Bonneville DamPublished: Friday, February 25, 2011,8:45 PMUpdated: Saturday, February 26, 2011,9:31 AM

By The Oregonian Follow

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The 1st California sea lions of 2011 were observed Monday at Bonneville - the latest appearance in 5 years.

California sea lions mainly run on salmon and result in June when the spring run ends. Stellers, on the other hand, stay under the dam all year now, Stansell says, and clearly have developed a penchant for sturgeon. Already this year, 32 different Steller sea lions have been counted under the dam. Larger - they weigh 2,000 pounds - and more aggressive than California sea lions, the Stellers are pushing their way in. Only a handful were observed each year from 2002 through 2007; the count jumped to 39 in 2008, then to 75 last year, according to the corps' counts. Stellers eat sturgeon until salmon runs begin in March then return to sturgeon once the salmon move upriver. And the fish are easy pickings: While spring chinook travel fast to make the upper Columbia, sturgeon are the opposite - they can't climb the fish ladders and the larger breeding fish prefer the troubled water under the dam to spawn.

Delisting the Steller sea lion from the Endangered Species List

Oregon, Washington and Alaska last year petitioned to take Stellers from Alaska to California off the union threatened list, arguing that overall increases met 3 percent growth for 30 years. The National Marine Fisheries Service has said delisting "may be warranted" and a determination is due in August. Even then, though, state fishery managers could get permission to remove or kill Stellers only if they are hurting an endangered species - and sturgeon are not. Guy Norman, a Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife regional director, says it may come downward to request Congress to modify the Marine Mammal Protection Act to include sturgeon. That would not guarantee anything. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late last year halted removing or killing California sea lions below Bonneville. The Humanist Society of the United States argued that the regime had not made a serious enough case as to why sea lions killing endangered salmon was worse than fun and commercial fishing killing many, many more. NMFS says it leave not appeal, but will ask for authority to leave California sea lion removal this spring. "We're taking about every step available to us," says Steve Williams, of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, "but the world is that the federal law does not give the states the power to do some things at these pinch points like Bonneville Dam." The Humane Society is opposing delisting the Steller. It asked that the Stellers be crushed into three segments - Alaska; British Columbia; and Washington/Oregon/California - and treated differently. It points to studies indicating Stellers in Canada and Alaska are rich but are declining elsewhere, especially California. Sharon Young of the Humanist Society understands her opponents' concerns about sturgeon. But she says commercial and play catch - 17,000 this year - is much greater than what Stellers take. "There are a lot of things that could create a vast departure for those fish that are unpopular or inconvenient or awkward," Young says. "Killing sea lions is a distraction to addressing those other issues."- Quinton Smith