Appeals court stays execution of sea lions

[flashl]

Source: Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court gave a stay of execution on Wednesday to 85 sea lions slated to be killed starting on Thursday to help boost salmon stocks below a dam connecting the states of Washington and Oregon.

A lower court denied an initial request for a preliminary injunction but, in a late afternoon ruling, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals moved to save the sea lions pending further review of the case.

"The lethal taking of the California sea lions is, by definition, irreparable. This logic also applies to the salmon consumed by the sea lions," the court said in response to an emergency motion.

...

Even as the appeals court barred the immediate killing of the sea lions, it said a plan to transfer 19 of the animals to zoos and aquariums should proceed.

Reuters

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2340989720080424

[madeline_con]

1. Geez! Like they'll eat so much!

In balancing whether to let the California sea lions be killed to protect the salmon, the court noted that the 2008 salmon run on the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River was estimated to be 269,000 fish.

The sea lions were estimated to consume between 212 and 2,094 of the Chinook salmon -- 4.4 percent of the total at the high end of that estimate.

[msongs]

3. used to be millions of fish - sea lions will starve in a few years and disappear too nt

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Maybe WE'RE the ones...

who should stop hogging all the salmon. :shrug: After all, the problem has been caused by us, not the sea lions.

[Winterblues]

6. Sixty dams on the Columbia and it's tributaries.

Fry going through the turbines is what is killing the salmon and not sealions. The sealion population has shrunk over the years and in fact they are protected. Alaska has zero dams and has "extremely healthy" (ADF&G words, not mine) stocks of salmon and they also have the largest commercial fishing fleet and the largest numbers of sealions.

[superconnected]

2. Thank goodness.

[GOPNotForMe]

4. Good for the appeals court!