Posted by Eagle Ray on October 01, 2002 at 09:28:03:
In Reply to: Re: Actually... posted by seahunt on October 01, 2002 at 08:54:15:
While your points are valid and I really hate how people are always at one extreme or the other too, I still do not see the justification of a "party boat" captain shooting sea lions to save a couple fish.
Everyone on board caught plenty of fish that day and the sea lions caused no harm. At most, they stole 5 or 6 sardines off peoples lines. God forbid someone had to rebait their hooks! I don't think that warrants getting shot with a rubber bullet. Do you? The size of the current Sea Lion population has nothing do with this issue. Not every answer is exact and based purely on science. Sometimes an emotional factor must come into play when it comes to the treatment of other living creatures.
You say, "Do you have any idea what pests Sea Lions can be" but what gives us the right to take over their fishing grounds? They probably think we are the pests. We should share the oceans with the things living in it and just deal with it if a sea lion snags a couple of fish from us.