Friday, May 20, 2011

Humane Society challenges sea lion killing

The Humanist Society of the United States said Friday it has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop the cleanup of California sea lions that eat endangered or threatened salmon at Bonneville Dam.

The suit came a week later the National Marine Fisheries Service authorized wildlife managers in Oregon and Capital to resume trapping and kill the sea lions.

The mammals eat the migratory fish as they meet at the dam east of Portland while bearing up the Columbia River.

The Humane Society had won a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in November 2010 that said the fisheries service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had not properly justified its determination to hit and down the sea lions.

The fisheries service said last week it had complied with the court requirements.

The Humanist Society has argued that Northwest salmon and steelhead populations are at greater peril from overfishing and hydroelectric dam operations than they are from native sea lion predation. The constitution claimed the sea lions eat but a minuscule fraction of the angle that are caught or killed every year.

"We observe this is a useless exercise," said Sharon Young, a Humane Society spokeswoman. "Killing the sea lions at the dam is not going to clear anything."

Calls to federal officials in Portland and Washington, D.C. were not immediately returned Friday. But the fisheries agency, also known as Noaa Fisheries Service, has declined to comment on pending litigation in the past.

The Oregon Department of Pisces and Wildlife had resumed trapping the animals on Monday for removal to be euthanized, but state officials were unavailable on Friday due to a mandated furlough day.

Rick Hargrave, an ODFW spokesman, said before this week that biologists were looking solely for sea lions that had been branded as repeat offenders. The exercise is to try to daze the animals to chase them out and place the ones that keep feeding, he said.

The new lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. claimed the fisheries service failed to require Oregon and Washington to register any changed circumstances justifying authorization of lethal removal of sea lions.

It also alleged the office should have filed either a supplemental "environmental assessment" or an environmental impact statement before reauthorizing removal.

Young said the Humane Society plans to essay a temporary restraining order to block any removal or cleanup of sea lions.

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