newswire article reporting oregon & cascadia animal rights | environment Activists Crash Sea Lion Press Conference At Bonneville Dam author: Columbiana Today, activists from the Sea Lion Defense Brigade and In Defense of Animals, along with several autonomous individuals, crashed a press conference held by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) at Bonneville Dam. The press conference was being held to pre-emptively curb public revulsion over the agencies' plans to kill sea lions on the river beginning next week. They did not announce the conference publically, and they made it clear that "press ID will be required" in order to attend. Nevertheless, activists and some independent media representatives managed to skirt the crack security out there (yes, the same crack security that allowed six sea lions to be mysteriously trapped and killed last year...), and infiltrate the conference. They actually gave us all hard hats and ID badges. This is a very quick and brief report-back, as I must be elsewhere now. However, I urge other indy reporters and activists who were there today to add their own observations and photographs to this report.



Activists were there to ask the hard questions that are not being asked by the corporate media. Questions like, "Aren't you again raising the fishing quota this year, at the same time that you are talking about the need to kill sea lions?" "How many years in a row have you raised the quotas for commercial and sport fishermen?" "Didn't you just raise the quota to 13%, and didn't you say in your own documents that a 13% take by fishermen would pose 'no significant impact' to the salmon population? How, then, can you tell the public that the sea lions' alleged take of 4% of salmon poses a significant impact to the salmon population?" "Haven't sea lions always co-existed with salmon on the Columbia river, without posing a threat to either species?" "Isn't it true that dams and over-fishing are causing salmon to go extinct, not sea lions?""Why are you not addressing the salmon crisis in a non-lethal, and far more effective, manner by curbing fishing?" And many other questions.



Bizarrely, the corporate "reporters" stood mutely by while these questions were blatantly skirted by the people who organized this press conference. When one activist demanded answers regarding the raising of the fishing quotas at a time when salmon populations are imperiled, Diana Fredlund of the Army Corps of Engineers leapt between the questioner and the government "expert" who could not answer the question. Diana brusquely told the questioner that "we are not here to answer questions." ...At a press conference. The corporate reporters never even batted an eye nor asked a single relevant follow up question. The same thing occurred again and again, as activists and indy reporters sought answers to legitimate questions about this very misguided program.



Thank God for indymedia, because I'll bet you don't see most of this on the news tonight.



The highlight of the occasion was to be a demonstration of the newly refurbished traps. Those following this story will recall that six sea lions were mysteriously trapped in two separate traps last year, and died under very suspicious circumstances which have still not been adequately explained. This proved to be such a PR disaster for the agencies involved in the trapping program that they halted trapping for the remainder of last year. Today, we were told that the traps have been redesigned to work flawlessly, with a remote control device that would make it impossible for any problems like that to occur this year. The official at the controls warned everyone that the doors, when they closed, would close very quickly and everyone should be ready with their cameras. Reporters and corporate-media-pseudo-reporters eagerly lined the banks for the big moment. Someone asked for a countdown, and the official obliged. "Three! Two! One!" ....and ...nothing. The traps did not spring.



"Aw, wouldn't you know," grumbled the official I was standing near. They tried again. "Three! Two! One!" ...nothing. The remote control failed to work, the traps failed to close. A long and ponderous moment.



The awkward silence was finally broken by IDA's Matt Rossell. I will paraphrase, but later I can quote directly from the video tape: "Given what just happened," He began, "How is the public to have any trust or confidence in your agencies? Given this, and what happened last year, how are we to place our trust in your ability to pull this off in a humane and competent manner?"



Again, no answers. And no follow up by the corporate media.



Before I close this report, I want to just underline the horror that seems to have been missed here by most of the reports I've seen on this subject: If people do nothing, sea lions will be killed, beginning next week. Sea lions will die for the crime of eating. This is wrong. Plans are to trap as many as they can, but everyone involved concedes that they will then turn to shooting the sea lions in the water.



This should matter to anyone who cares about Cascadia. If it matters to you, DO something. Please. contribute to this article

contribute to this article add comment to discussion view discussion from this article