Video footage has surfaced showing a fishing boat speeding across the Columbia River and running over sea lions in clear violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The footage, captured Monday by a Portland resident, has prompted an investigation by county and federal authorities.
In the footage, the vessel is shown veering toward and over several groups of sea lions as they rest on an otherwise calm surface off Hayden Island.
“Whoever was driving it, they went right through the pack of the first one and it was kind of [like he] was trying to hit every pack and I just looked around me and everybody was devastated,” Michael Brady, who captured the footage, told KGW.
It was not clear if any animals were injured.
A Portland man took this video of what appears to be a fisherman purposely targeting sea lions with his boat off Hayden Island yesterday.
@NOAA and @MultCoSO are aware of this video. NOAA is investigating.
@KGWNews pic.twitter.com/Bv14xZBGII
— Daisy Caballero (@_DaisyCaballero) April 4, 2023
The Marine Mammal Protection Act, passed in 1972, prohibits the hunting or harassment of marine mammals, or approaching them too closely. Harassment can be defined as any act that alters the mammals’ behavior.
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The footage might also help to illustrate the frustration fishermen experience regarding mammals that are voracious competitors capable of decimating large schools of fish in short order.
“It was inappropriate for sure. But it really is a product of the frustration over the dramatic declines of salmon in the Pacific Northwest in recent years,” Bob Rees, a fishing guide and the executive director of the Northwest Guides and Anglers Association, told the Oregonian. “We don’t have the fishing opportunities that we’ve historically had.”
Said Brady: “I understand the frustration. I understand this year is tough on salmon. But I think this was a sport fisherman who had a little chip on his shoulder and it was terrible to witness as a community here.”
The number of California sea lions – the same animals that inhabit the Columbia River basin – has increased steadily since the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Latest estimates place the West Coast population at about 280,000 animals.