Sea lions to be hazed daily until end of May

PORTLAND — The Oregon and Washington fish and wildlife departments will again begin hazing sea lions to deter them from preying on runs of threatened salmon and steelhead below Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.

This is the third year that the departments have tried to shoo off the sea lions. They use nonlethal deterrents such as crackershells, rubber buckshots and underwater firecrackers.

But this year crews will be working every day of the week through May 31, a significant escalation in the fight against predators.

"As in previous years, our goal is to change these animals' behavior," Jeff Koenings, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in a statement. "Predation by sea lions on fish in the tailrace of Bonneville Dam is a fairly recent phenomenon, and we don't want any more of them to learn that behavior."

California sea-lion numbers have burgeoned since the 1970s. A September wildlife survey documented 1,200 California sea lions at the mouth of the Columbia River.