PINNIPED PREDATION OF chinook has been a topic of heated anecdotal discussion and debate for decades.
With chinook stocks diminished and recreational fisheries constrained by low runs, a recently published research article by Makah Fisheries Management and Western Washington University studied how much juvenile chinook are eaten by Steller sea lions in the marine waters of northwest Washington.
Seals and sea lions were hunted for subsistence and their skins by the Makah and other indigenous tribes along the Pacific coast and early settlers nearly hunted the creatures to extinction for the fur trade.
Congress in 1972 passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act to help seals, sea lions and other animals rebound without the threat of human intervention, but the legislation has worked a little too well for pinnipeds.
From 1975 to 2015, the harbor seal population in the Salish Sea exploded from about 6,000 to around 50,000. And California sea lions rose from 50,000 to somewhere around 300,000 on the West Coast of the U.S., according to the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. Populations of Steller’s sea lions living around Washington, Oregon and California steadily rose from an estimated 15,000 in 1982 to more than 43,000 in 2019.
Because of that, Makah Marine Biologist Jonathan Scordino, said the ecosystem is now out of balance.
“When we remove humans as predators it causes an abundance of pinnipeds,” he said in a 2023 Seattle Times article. “In some ways, that’s great. But it does have an impact on the other components of the ecosystem: salmon and forage fish like herring and other things.”
A change came when the state was authorized by Congress to expand a program to capture and euthanize sea lions in the Columbia River Basin in 2018.
Managers including tribes and Washington and Oregon state fish and wildlife officials have permanently removed 380 California and Steller’s sea lions. Some sea lions were trapped and placed in captivity and others were euthanized.
Use of firearms is prohibited. Instead, a combination of trapping and darting is used, along with the lethal injection of tranquilizing drugs.
Any future pinniped culls will need research-backed data like the new study provides to help inform the public.
Scordino, one of the authors of the study, estimated based on analysis of scat samples and statistical modeling that Steller sea lions ate 191–417 metric tons of chinook during the nine-month study of Dec. 2020 to Aug. 2021.
“Specifically for juvenile chinook salmon during their first year foraging in the ocean, we estimated that Steller sea lions ate 93–221 metric tons, which equates to 1,431,524–2,932,922 individuals,” the study’s abstract said.
“Our results suggest that Steller sea lions contribute to the low marine survival rates of early marine-phase chinook salmon at a higher rate than previously estimated. The high uncertainty in model estimates, compounded by assumptions and limitations arising from data gaps, highlights the need for further research on both predator and prey populations in the region.”
Winterfest Saturday
Winterfest, the annual kickoff of the ski and snowboard season, is set Saturday at the Vern Burton Center, 308 E. Fourth St.
The dinner and banquet serves as the largest fundraiser of the year for the Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Foundation.
Tickets are $80 in advance, $95 at the door.
Appetizers, an oyster bar, dinner and dessert will be served and there will be a no-host beer and wine garden.
For tickets and to view silent auction items visit, https://tinyurl.com/PDN-WinterFest25.
For more information, email hurricaneridgewinterfest@gmail.com.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at sports@peninsuladaily news.com.
