Real sea lion problems

[Tman]

Just my thoughts...

Seals, sea lions, sea dogs, are not vegetarians. The more they multiply, the more they eat, right?

What a concept...

Now let's replace the sea dogs with sea cats...a step further, the sea cats with land cats and dogs.

Coyotes attack our household pets. Also, they have been known to attack children. In pursuit of food, they will go after anything to quench their appetite. Let's not hurt them or abuse them based on the same theory.

Now to larger cats...mountain lions. When they attack live stock, DFG, upon proof, will allow the rancher to take any measure necessary to protect his stock, thus the farmer brings in goats, which still get decimated.

So, based on this reasoning, we are to allow seals, sea lions full reign, while our land animals who have the potential to cause harm to humans, are fair game.

Unless I am missing something, each of these predators have an impact on our food chain and/or threaten our safety.

Is it safe to assume that upon the first confrontation with a human and a sea lion, they will be then categorized in the same manner as the coyote and mountain lion?

After all, we are all in search of food...

[Billy V]

Sea Lions do come uncomfortable close to kayakers to attack our catch, sometimes boarding or flipping a kayak. I would consider that a life threatening situation while I was a couple of miles offshore in a kayak.

Are we (kayakers) allowed to defend ourselves when faced with an attacking Sea lion ? Its not like they are defenseless.

-If for instance I was legally fishing in front of the Children's Pool and a Seal or Sea Lion try to board my kayak to steal a Calico Bass sitting in my rear well. Could I shoot him because I was in fear of loosing my life ?
-I would sure like to know.
-------------------------------------------
Does Kalifornia allow kayakers to carry a bang stick or firearm on board ?

[dsafety]

While I am not aware of a report of a seal lion attack on a human, (except for me when I once paddled a zodiac too close to a rookery on San Clemente Island), the possibility certainly exists. The time may come when a hungry sea lion attacks a defenseless swimmer or beach walker. If that happens the fit will hit the shan.

Many marine mammals were hunted and abused during the not to distant past. In an attempt to pay restitution for past offenses, we have protected and coddled some these wild animals to the point that they are no longer "wild" in the truest sense.

Sea lions, and to a lesser extent seals are the ocean's coyotes. These animals are smart and very adaptable. During the last half century, we have taught them to depend on Man for much of their sustenance. Some of these animals know of no other way to feed themselves other than to take the easy meal provided by Man. These animals, under our protection, are thriving but as their populations grow, they may be thriving at the expense of other wildlife. For example, the rapidly growing sea otter population has been blamed for the disappearance of abalone along much of the California coast.

I recognize that it would be extremely difficult to get the average Joe, who has only seen photos of the cute seal pups on the beach, to support a progressive idea such as reducing their population to save an ecosystem as a whole. It may come down to that however.

Maybe one day there will be a truly science-based MLPA that looks at all the factors that influence a healthy fishery. If that ever happens, I suspect that sea lions will get a lot more attention than they did this time around.

Bob

[habanero]

I have no scientific evidence to back me up but I believe the these protected, unnaturally concentrated mammals kill far more wild life in La Jolla when compared to fishing. If "The Science" proved this accurate, how many blue shirts would support a culling program?

[MalibuJohnny]

While a deck hand on the BlackJack (way back when) It was not un-common for a member of the crew ( Captian #*@*&#!38 ) to sit on the wheel house with a #22 and shoot the seals at San Nicholas Island.
This took place while we had paying customers on board. I couldn't understand why he would take such a risk,...one day several weeks later, he was at it again and someone taped him while he was picking off the FUR BASS... Captian #*@*&#138 would tell the customers that he was shooting sharks. Anyway I believe he was charged with shooting and shooting at seals. (Later we started using seal bombs...)

I didn't stay around to find out what ever happened

[dgax65]

One of the reports on this incident mentioned that the California sea lion population is exploding. They said that a record 59,000 were born in 2008. I'm not sure if that was just in this state or throughout their range. Either way, that's a lot of dogs. I have a feeling that the GWS birth rate is nowhere near that of the sea lions. It will probably be decades before the GWS shark population comes into any sort of equilibrium with the sea lions. Until then, there will be lots of hungry sea lion out there. The promise of MPA's allowing fish stocks to recover will likely never be realized if the sea lion population is out of control. Ten years from now, when we have dwindling fish stocks and lots of fat sea lion, the DFG will probably decide that the MPA's just weren't big enough to protect the poor little fishies and they will close the entire coast.

[Billy V]

Originally Posted by dgax65

One of the reports on this incident mentioned that the California sea lion population is exploding. They said that a record 59,000 were born in 2008. I'm not sure if that was just in this state or throughout their range. Either way, that's a lot of dogs. I have a feeling that the GWS birth rate is nowhere near that of the sea lions. It will probably be decades before the GWS shark population comes into any sort of equilibrium with the sea lions. Until then, there will be lots of hungry sea lion out there. The promise of MPA's allowing fish stocks to recover will likely never be realized if the sea lion population is out of control. Ten years from now, when we have dwindling fish stocks and lots of fat sea lion, the DFG will probably decide that the MPA's just weren't big enough to protect the poor little fishies and they will close the entire coast.

Remember this argument when the MLPA People come back in 5 years to tell us that The Fish Stocks Have Not Recovered Enough -and- They Need to Close Off More of the Coast with SMR's.

--------------------
We need to start legislation to Cull Sea Lion, and Seal Population now.
That should have gone hand in hand with the implementation of any SMR.
--------------------
A Huge Reserve in La Jolla as proposed, and an Out of Control Seal/Sea Lion in the Same ares ='s FAIL.
A Large Failure.

[Willy]

*Sharpens pitchfork. Dips torch in oil*

Nothing to see here.
Move along.
Move along.


Willy

[BIGWEAVESTEVE]

maybe the gws are moving in, remember the swimmer in solana beach