Killing Sea lions to save salmon

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080118/ap_on_sc/sea_lions;_ylt=Ao4P_3tlLdI.MNu2bibziQ.s0NUE

Hell yeah sign me up!

They eat 4% of the salmon?  I don't know if I'd call that "substantial".

Yeah.....I second the motion......
And control Sea Lion populations up and down the coast....

And take the murderous protection off of White Sharks---which are not and never have been "endangered" and whose absurd proliferation is endangering the sports of surfing, skin-diving and scuba.

And remove the scientificly-flatulent and murderous protection off of Mountain Lions---Mountain Lions are not and never have been "endangered."

We are governed by an absolutely mad Legislature....effite fools who do not care a fig for human life as-against their own out-of-control version of "environmentalism."

Sack the bastards
Every single one of them

Election coming up.....let everyone do his utmost to reform the California Legislature.

Judd

Election coming up.....let everyone do his utmost to reform the California Legislature.

Oh... but Judd... they want to extend their term limits so they can sit in the Assembly for up to 12 years rather than getting the heave-ho after 6 years.

See Prop 93. 

We need re-districting... not extended term limits.

Sorry... back to sea lions.  I think their population should be controlled the same as any other animal that becomes overpopulated.

And take the murderous protection off of White Sharks---which are not and never have been "endangered" and whose absurd proliferation is endangering the sports of surfing, skin-diving and scuba.

And remove the scientificly-flatulent and murderous protection off of Mountain Lions---Mountain Lions are not and never have been "endangered."

Judd

Well Judd,

I know you generally have a negative opinion about any kind of environmental protection, so your rant doesn't surprise me.

In 80 years, there have been 7 fatalities from shark attacks in California. And they don't eat any of the fish that we target. Not exactly endangering any aquatic sports. When you start killing sharks in large numbers, then you start to see adverse effects. They fail to control the smaller species of sharks, which actually DO kill large numbers of the species we target. This happened in Hawaii in the 1970's when they killed lots of tiger sharks. Kill enough white sharks, and the sea lion problem will get even worse.

There have been 3 fatalities due to cougars in California. Not exactly a bloodbath. They DO keep the populations of game animals healthy, which actually helps hunters.

I'll go shoot a seal lion. You wouldn't even need to pay me!

CHEERS!

P.S. I get bullets for free!

Good-friend Gandoderma.....

Deaths (from shark & M-Lion) are not the whole story.

There are way way too many good citizens---just like you and I---who are walking around disfigured, maimed and scarred from attacks.

And the hateful "environmental-cant" people who want to minimize the horrors that THEY are perpetrating in the false name of stewardship....claim that number-of-deaths are the entire figure of merit.

How many people have given up surfing?
Now many people have declined to buy a surf-board?

The same for diving.

These costs are entirely unjustified.

Does my angry opposition make me an environmental terradactile?

Judd

Judd,

I don't really think that the possibility of shark attacks has had any effect on the popularity of water sports. I have lived in the red triangle for over 20 years, and there are more surfers and swimmers in the water every year, despite the occasional attack. I was swimming off Maui a couple of years ago when my friend's brother was attacked by a tiger shark. He lost part of his hand. It gave me the creeps to be so close to an attack, since he was the only person swimming farther out than me. Did it freak me out? Hell yeah! Do I think they should have tried to find and kill the shark? Hell no! They already tried that in the 70's. Attacks didn't decrease. By the way, that same beach was crowded with swimmers a week later, despite the news reports about the attack.

And hiking and mountain biking are more popular than ever, despite the remote possibility of being munched by a cougar. Nobody wants to get attacked by a predator, of course, but killing them has practically no impact on attacks. It does mess up the predator-prey balance, so you end up with more pain-in-the-ass sea lions or herds of weak deer.

Many areas of CA are buck only for deer hunting, and this probably wouldn't be the case if they weren't trying to keep large numbers of deer around for the lions.  Wisconsin has the same thing, there's a timber wolf zone where the deer hunting is dramatically curtailed.  That doesn't exactly enamor folks of the wolves or lions.  Any talk of predators like that making the game stronger is pure BS - just as dumb as saying those sea lions make the salmon stronger.

Regarding white sharks and salmon, from the shark research committee:
"In late September 1977 a local air taxi operator sighted a large shark stranded on a beach 16 miles southwest of Ketchikan, Alaska. Fisheries biologist Robert Larson examined the shark on 30 September 1977. The adult male White Shark was 15 feet 4 inches in total length. Upon dissection of the shark's stomach about 100 opaque circular objects were discovered, each about 0.25 inches in diameter. John E. Fitch, Research Director, California Department of Fish & Game, Long Beach, subsequently identified them as lenses from fish eyes, most probably salmonids. The number of lenses present in the shark's stomach suggests that fish might provide a larger percentage of adult White Shark nutritional requirements than previously thought. Although White Sharks appear to prefer pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) as their main staple after attaining maturity, they still consume fish. This fact has been overtly omitted, or frequently understated, over the last two or three decades by some White Shark researchers."

Many areas of CA are buck only for deer hunting, and this probably wouldn't be the case if they weren't trying to keep large numbers of deer around for the lions.  Wisconsin has the same thing, there's a timber wolf zone where the deer hunting is dramatically curtailed.  That doesn't exactly enamor folks of the wolves or lions.  Any talk of predators like that making the game stronger is pure BS - just as dumb as saying those sea lions make the salmon stronger.

Regarding white sharks and salmon, from the shark research committee:
"In late September 1977 a local air taxi operator sighted a large shark stranded on a beach 16 miles southwest of Ketchikan, Alaska. Fisheries biologist Robert Larson examined the shark on 30 September 1977. The adult male White Shark was 15 feet 4 inches in total length. Upon dissection of the shark's stomach about 100 opaque circular objects were discovered, each about 0.25 inches in diameter. John E. Fitch, Research Director, California Department of Fish & Game, Long Beach, subsequently identified them as lenses from fish eyes, most probably salmonids. The number of lenses present in the shark's stomach suggests that fish might provide a larger percentage of adult White Shark nutritional requirements than previously thought. Although White Sharks appear to prefer pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) as their main staple after attaining maturity, they still consume fish. This fact has been overtly omitted, or frequently understated, over the last two or three decades by some White Shark researchers."

Before humans upset the balance, there were huge salmon runs, despite millions of years of white sharks roaming the oceans. White sharks aren't the cause of declined salmon runs. Humans are.

You're right about deer / cougar relationships in some cases. Where the deer population is low, mountain lions can actually deplete the herds to very low levels. The cougars could be selectively culled in those areas. On the other hand, areas where there are no predators often have huge herds of deer, many of them sickly.

I have very little worry about Great Whites nor Sea Lions.

I could also be worried about kayak fisherpersons, or being attacked by squids or rampaging jellyfish or my neighbors' ex-wife.

Get a life and let's go fishing.