Salmon Wars-Seals in Crosshairs

This ugly eco news was almost inevitable. With salmon stocks up and down the California and Oregon coast disappearing at an alarming rate, the natural predator gets the bad rap.

In this case the seal. Sadly several elephant seals were also shot on California's central coast this week as well.

Sea lions shot dead on Columbia River as salmon battle rages

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — For years, the sea lions lounging at the Bonneville Dam have had easy pickings from salmon waiting to go up fish ladders to upriver spawning grounds.

Over the weekend, the federally protected sea creatures were themselves easy prey for a gunman who shot and killed six of the sea lions as they lay in traps meant to humanely catch them.

State and federal authorities were investigating the shootings, which came less than two weeks after an appeals court issued a temporary injunction against authorities killing the salmon-gobbling mammals. Agents have been trapping them instead, but trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Fishermen and American Indian tribes have pushed to protect the salmon and remove the sea lions, by lethal force if necessary.

The carcasses of the four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found Sunday around noon below the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington.

The six animals appear to have been shot by somebody on the Washington side during the night, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

McSeals Go Missing-McKiller Whales Blamed

If there was any doubt after reading this latest news that the Great White shark is only the second most impressive oceanic predator...we're not sure how much convincing you need.

Seems off the coast of Scotland McKillers are gobbling up seals faster than $1.00 Fillet-o-Fish sandwiches.

Killer whales blamed for decline of Scottish seals

Attacks by killer whales may be helping to drive the sudden and mysterious decline of seals around the northern coasts of Scotland, new research suggests.

British populations of harbour seals (also known as common seals) are falling steeply, with numbers in Orkney and Shetland dropping by 40 per cent in the five years to 2006.

So far, the declines are unexplained, but a new theory is that killer whales, or orcas, the bulky, black-and-white predators which are in fact the largest members of the dolphin family, have increased their taking of seals to such an extent that it may be causing populations to shrink.

The harbour seal is one of Britain's two native seal species, the other being the bigger grey seal. But while grey seal populations remain buoyant, harbour seal numbers are tumbling, especially in the Northern Isles, where nearly half of them live. Surveys in Orkney and Shetland in 2001 found 12,635 animals, but when the counts were repeated in 2006, they showed that numbers had plunged to 7,277.

Hard Science: Ano Nuevo

Nicole Teutschel is with the TOPP's team at Ano Nuevo Island just a few short miles down the coast from the Bay Area in Northern California.

The site of an abundant Elephant Seal colony, she and her team have been tagging these simply huge pinnipeds with long range sat tags in the hopes of learning more about these amazing critters.

Oh, and Ano Nuevo is also home to more Great White sharks per square inch than almost any other site on the planet as well.

If you have some time to rip through some cool tracking data today have a look at the latest in Hard Science.

We're pretty sure these 2000lb seals just don't roll over to get sat tags placed on them: