The cake exists until the last slice vanishes, then we finger the culprit and demand satisfaction – despite our distended belly and inability to eat anything more. It begs the question, how does not inhaling the last slice exonerate us of eating the rest of the cake?
Somehow our sense of proportion is out of whack, which isn’t surprising, the banks did similar by leveraging assets 30 times – and only claimed foul when everything fell apart.
Now we’re going to kill Sea Lion’s that had the audacity to eat salmon on the Columbia River – after farking the salmon completely with over-harvest, pollution, and encroachment of watershed. We’ve bulldozed the spawning gravel for the foundation for our McMansion, cut the bank timber to build yet another strip mall, and now we’re incensed that something else on the planet has the chutzpah to want some too?
It’s comforting that we’re so distraught over the salmon’s plight that we’re willing to kill crap out of anything looking to harm one, but as Sea Lion’s aren’t killing for glee or leaving the unwanted carcasses on the bank – and if they outnumber the salmon and that’s not fair, whose fault is that really?
California isn’t the only state with it’s head up it’s collective arse.
We know that sea lions are not to blame for the demise of Columbia salmon. The fish runs collapsed because of dams, overfishing and habitat destruction. Even today, these are more significant causes of salmon mortality than sea lions. But we also know that the Northwest has no choice now but to address every killer of wild salmon.
As we remain “most of the killers”, I’d like to see the list of homes we’ll raze, timber acres to be restored, dams eliminated, and strip malls bulldozed for spawning gravel, because that might give the silvery SOB’s a fighting chance.
Seals, Otter, Osprey, and the American Fish Eagle dine on Salmon – I’m sure we’ll be properly outraged at each affront and insist on blowing a gaping hole in a Liberty Pigeon’s plumbing …
I look forward to day when the minutemen patrol the rivers instead of the border in hopes of blasting any angler who is unable to successfully revive a fish. “Bill, cut your line dude, holy crap they are coming, cut it! CUT IT!”
Ever notice how, when we screw something up due to poor management and control, the solution is almost always *more* management and control?
Does sea lion fur make for good dubbing?
What are you guys talkin bout? When we have finished screwin it all up…we give it back to the Indians and go back to Europe! Meanwhile, what else can we leverage at 30/1?
Amen to that brother!. Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. Years ago my siblings and I would visit mom and dad in AZ and hike in the desert. We’d pick a couple barrel cacti the size of beer cans and bring them back to the house. Mom would scold us about the state fines incurred if we were caught. But every year we’d go back we’d see more of the desert succumbed to new subdivisions. It became apparent who owned the desert.
According to the editorial, the sea lions take about 4% of the run while sport fishermen take about 13%. Naturally, the solution here is to pop a cap in some sea lions rather than reduce the take permitted to sport fishermen.
If I still lived in the area, I’d happily sit out a season or two if it would make a difference. How can they say that all options have been exhausted? How about a proposal to reduce the fishermen’s take by 50% for five years? Catch and release still permitted, but you can’t keep as many. Not an option?