In the town of Astoria, Oregon lots of sea lions come from California annually and attract tourists. Even though tourists love seeing them near the shore, the locals are fed up from the sea lions.

Officials have tried using a variety of obstacles that might try to cause the sea lions to leave, but nothing seems to scare them off. Even though the sea lions are lawfully protected, Oregon authorities are trying to get permission to be able to kill them.

According to Oregon marine biologists, Winter Steelheads will soon start to go extinct and the sea lions are the cause. They feed on Winter Steelheads at Willamette Falls. If they do receive permission to be able to kill the sea lions, they would be allowed to kill about 92 sea lions annually.

In the 70s, the population of sea lions was lower than 90,000. However, over the last few years, their population has grown up to 300,000.

Oregon veterinarians argue that being allowed to kill some of the sea lions will help protect the Winter Steelheads from going extinct. A large number of sea lions feed on these fish every year. The fish are very outnumbered.

California sea lions swim up North during the month of September. They stay in Oregon until the month of May. From the coasts of Oregon, they swim to Willamette Falls to feed on the fish. Even though they are marine animals, they have adapted to swimming in freshwater.

Over the past few years, the number of fish that were making it over the falls was over 15,000. However, this past winter, only 1,000 of the fish made it to over the falls according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

25% of the fish were eaten by sea lions.

The sea lions also feed on Salmon and other fish in the Columbia River with low population numbers.

Officials tried to capture sea lions while they were bathing, transported them further away from their location and then freed them, but it did not seem to stop the sea lions from going back and feeding on the fish.

Humane Society Marine Wildlife believes that this is an “endless and ineffective treadmill of death.”

Oregon authorities only want the protection of the sacred fish in the falls, however, killing sea lions in order to protect the fish does not seem like the best plan to the government.