Fill 'em Full of Lead

Yes friends, those dastardly and conspiratorial pinnipeds days are numbered. We're gonna round 'em up and fill them full of lead at long last. I mean after all how dare they have the audacity to eat OUR salmon! Those fish are ours and it's just not right that sea lions are eating them. Never mind the fact that we over harvested the Columbia River smelt that the sea lions used to feed on in the Columbia causing them to seek other food sources for survival. It also doesn't matter that it was us that pretty much set the dinner table for them to feast on salmon by putting man made fish barriers like hydro-electric dams.

The prevalent thinking is to vilify sea lions as selfish gluttons who take more than their fair share of salmon but wait! We say the same thing about the commercial fleet who take more than their share of salmon don't we? Maybe when we talk about selfish gluttons we should look in the mirror!
You see what I'm getting at?
I have no doubt that sea lions eat a large amount of migratory spring chinook as they make their way up the Columbia River. I also have no doubt that something needs to be done about the situation. What I am wondering is when the sea lion problem is taken care of and the commercial gill netters are kicked off of the river and the commercial trollers are kicked off the ocean and then the runs still crash who do we point the finger at then? Who will be the scapegoat?
Oh heaven forbid that we should look at the proverbial man in the mirror because after all we are owed salmon aren't we? To hell with every other user groups, it's us in our $30,000 jet boats back bouncing eggs who are entitled to it all.
You know as sarcastic as this blog entry may seem it is the way that far too many people think.
They don't really give a damn about wild fish because after all you cannot smash them on the head to get freezer burned. Sure they may say it's all about the fish but it really is only about those fish that they can harvest. We cannot be inconvenienced by caring for the wild salmon that used to range far into the Snake River system and beyond in Idaho.
The sea lions are just the most convenient thing to blame right now and what could be better than having the Columbia River run red with pinniped blood because like some spoiled rotten child we sports anglers refuse to be told "You can't have it" so we will throw ourselves on the supermarket floor and have our little tantrum.