Sea lions have a hugely growing presence in parts of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers in the state of Oregon. You can hear them and sometimes smell them from a mile away according to locals. Now, the big clumsy marine mammal is being blamed for a run-in with a jet ski earlier this month on the water near the Oregon City Falls.
According to Katu2, Johnny Ulbricht was on the water with his wife around 7pm on Saturday, April 9th when he says a man and his step-son were tipped off their jet ski by a sea lion looming below. Ulbricht rushed to help and pulled the boy out of the water. The man managed to get back on the jet ski, which appeared to be undamaged. Thankfully neither the man or his young step-son were hurt.
Bill Taylor runs Osprey Guide Adventures and he says in the last 20 or so years he has been fishing in the Oregon City area, he’s noticed that the sea lion population has grown and that they’ve become very gutsy and unafraid when it comes to interacting with human beings. With their increasing population, he and many other local fisherman say the sea lions are taking the majority of the salmon population.
“These sea lions have turned into river lions. They’re eating possibly up to 50-60 percent of our salmon run on the Willamette and on the Columbia and nothing is being done about it. I don’t know why. It just befuddles me,” shared a clearly frustrated Taylor.
While sea lions are protected under from hunting under the Marine Mammal Act and it keeps the Willamette river area sea lions safe, area fisherman and pleasure craft enthusiasts say something needs to be done to keep them under control to not only keep the salmon population in the area from running low but to protect boaters from anymore run-ins with these sea lions.
