PORTLAND, Ore. — For years, the sea lions lounging at the Bonneville Dam have had easy pickings from salmon waiting to go up fish ladders to upriver spawning grounds.
During the weekend, the federally protected sea creatures were themselves easy prey for a gunman who shot and killed six of the sea lions as they lay in traps meant to humanely catch them.
The six salmon-gobbling animals appear to have been shot by somebody on the Washington state side during the night, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service. Fishermen and Indian tribes have pushed to protect the salmon and remove the sea lions, by lethal force if necessary.
State and federal authorities were investigating the shootings, and the area was being treated as a crime scene by state and federal agencies, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The shootings came less than two weeks after an appeals court issued a temporary injunction against federal authorities killing the mammals. Federal agents have been trapping them instead, but trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The public is not allowed to kill or trap the animals.
Two closed traps each contained the carcasses of California sea lions and one Steller sea lion, he said.
In the trapping operations, the traps are left open so the sea lions get used to them. When wildlife agents are ready to remove the sea lions, they close the traps.
Mr. Gorman said that when officers got to the traps below the dam’s powerhouses, where the water is rough enough to make getting there difficult, they found them closed.
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