PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon wildlife officials have started killing sea lions that threaten a run of winter steelhead in the Willamette River.
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife obtained a federal permit in November to kill up to 93 California sea lions annually below Willamette Falls south of Portland.
Officials have so far killed three of the animals using traps they used last year to relocate the sea lions.
The sea lions have learned that they can loiter under the waterfall and snack on the vulnerable steelhead as they struggle to make their way over the falls and back into the streams where they hatched in order to spawn.
Hunted for their thick fur, sea lion numbers dropped dramatically, but have rebounded from 30,000 in the late 1960s to about 300,000 today because of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.
But last winter, a record-low 512 wild winter steelhead completed their spawning journey.
Less than 30 years ago, that number was more than 15,000, according to state numbers.
The sea lions were eating so many winter steelhead at the falls that certain runs were at a high risk of going extinct, according to a 2017 study by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.