Throughout December, hundreds of sea lions vanished from the San Francisco bay area only to show up later in the Oregon Sea Lion Caves. The Oregon Sea Lion Caves are a connected system of sea caves and caverns located along the Pacific coast of Oregon and a popular hangout for sea birds such as the tufted puffin, pigeon guillemot, Brandt’s cormorant, and various types of gulls. The caves are also an important wintering home for the Stellar Sea Lion and – to a lesser extent –the California Sea Lion.

“We’re seeing the sea lions coming up this way from California because of the feeding. If the cold water fish move north to find colder waters, the sea lions have to eat and they follow the fish wherever they go,” says Sea Lion Caves General Manager Dan Harkins.

So, how can the cave staff know for sure who’s a visitor from California and who isn’t? Apparently, sea lions have dialects; just like us humans.

“We can identify them by the sound of their voice. They have a barking noise rather than a grumbling or a growling that Stellers do,” says Harkins.

The Sea Lion Caves were first explored in 1880 by local resident Captain William Cox. On a calm day, the captain entered the grotto through the western channel in his small boat. During a later expedition he was reportedly marooned due to stormy weather and had to survive by shooting a sea lion and eating its flippers. In 1887 Captain Cox purchased the land from the State of Oregon and the cave system has been privately owned and managed ever since.

As of August 12, 2009 the harvesting of krill in the in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington will be prohibited by federal law.

Yesterday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a final rule in the Federal Register prohibiting the harvesting of krill in these three regions. All types of krill harvesting will be illegal, regardless of fishery and gear type.

“Krill are the foundation for a healthy marine ecosystem,” said Mark Helvey, NOAA’s Fisheries Service Southwest Assistant Regional Administrator for Sustainable Fisheries. “Protecting this vital food resource will help protect and maintain marine resources and put federal regulations in line with West-Coast states.”

Harvesting krill within three miles of the coastline of California, Oregon, and Washington has already been prohibited by state law, but the zone situated between three and 200 miles off the coast have lacked krill protection until now.

“This is a great success for protecting the entire California Current ecosystem“, said William Douros, West Coast Regional Director for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “This decision reflects strong teamwork within NOAA and a commitment to addressing the issues raised by the Pacific Fishery Management Council and Sanctuary Advisory Councils.”

The krill protection rule was adopted as Amendment 12 to the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan (FMP), which was developed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. Amendment 12 adds all species of krill under a new category: ‘prohibited harvest species’.

Tens of thousands of crab pots litter the ocean floor, forming lethal obstacle courses of plastic lines and weighed-down metal cylinders. Lost crab pots are responsible for killing a long row of air breathing ocean dwellers, such as whales, sea lions and turtles. In addition to their effect on marine wildlife, stray crab pots also inflict costly and potentially dangerous damage to passing vessels.

The basic type of crab pot is a squat cylinder consisting of steel mesh and rubber, and with heavy iron that helps it sink to the bottom. Fishermen lose track of their crab pots due to various reasons, including storms, tousling kelp banks, and passing motor vessels that snaps of the line between the pot and the buoy.

In the past five years, two dead whales have washed up on the Oregon Coast entangled in the fatal combination of metallic pots and durable synthetic lines, but a federal stimulus grant of $700,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has now been assigned to pay Oregon fishermen for cleaning up their crab pots – or at least a fraction of them.

As the crab season ends in August, the federal money will be used to charter 10 boats and hire 48 people — including the 31 fishermen who make winning bids. The aim is to recover 4,000 pots over two seasons.

Each year, Oregon fishermen lose 10 percent of the 150,000 pots they put out, according to a statement from Cyreis Schmitt, marine policy project leader at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

A federal judge on Wednesday refused to stop Oregon and Washington from trapping and killing California sea lions at Bonneville Dam this spring to keep them from gobbling endangered salmon.

The Humane Society of the United States filed a lawsuit against the plan and asked for a preliminary court injunction to stop it.

Humane Society attorneys argued that culling sea lions won’t significantly benefit threatened salmon and steelhead runs. Shooting the animals would harm Columbia River kayakers and others who have relationships with individual sea lions, they said

But U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman rejected the injunction request. The judge agreed that it appears somewhat arbitrary to crack down on sea lions when fishing kills more salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act. But initial evidence indicates that sea lions do “very serious” harm to endangered and threatened salmon, Mosman ruled.

“It’s a rather remarkable thing to say that (destroying) an individual animal will cause irreparable harm,” Mosman said early in the hearing. He later called the Humane Society’s evidence of damage “far less weighty” than the government’s.

State officials said they could begin trapping sea lions as early as Tuesday, targeting animals that have been seen eating federally protected fish at the dam.

The plan authorizes capturing and killing up to 85 sea lions a year for five years. But the states’ goal is to capture 30 this year, with first priority given to relocating the animals to captive environments such as Sea World and the St. Louis Zoo.

About 20 slots have been found so far, said Guy Norman, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Vancouver office. Only about four weeks remain in the spring chinook’s journey upriver to Bonneville, Norman said.

“Our No. 1 step is to relocate as many sea lions as we can,” he said. “Whether we will get to lethal means this year is unknown.”

Anglers and biologists have grown increasingly frustrated with sea lions that feast on salmon gathering to climb Bonneville’s fish ladders. Last year, crews counted sea lions eating more than 4 percent of the salmon run, although biologists suspect they probably ate more.

Sea lion numbers have surged from about 1,000 animals in the 1930s to about 238,000 now along the West Coast. Fishery managers say it doesn’t make sense to let sea lions eat salmon while the Northwest restricts fishing and spends billions to try to help the fish recover.

Humane Society officials said the killing of sea lions at Bonneville Dam would be the first government-led killing since at least 1994, when Congress beefed up protection of marine mammals.

Other sea lions probably will take the place of the captured sea lions, they argued. Getting rid of 30 sea lions would save about 2,100 endangered or threatened fish, far fewer than fishing takes.

A decisive hearing on the lawsuit will be held as early as mid-May — when sea lion trapping probably will be finished for the year.

Sharon Young, a Humane Society field director, said the government should back off in the meantime. “We’re hoping they will not start shooting while the court is still hearing arguments.”

I have recieved permission to use this news article from Scott Learn at scottlearn@news.oregonian.com

For reasons unknown, massive groups of Humboldt Squid have left their native waters in South America and can now be found all the way up to Alaskan waters. The Humboldt Squid is most commonly found between Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost tip of the South American and the U.S. state of California. Recent findings do however suggest that the species is spreading north into the waters of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and even Alaska.

The Humboldt Squid can reach a size of 2 meters (7 feet) and weigh 45 kg (100 pounds). Due to its impressive size, it is known under names such as Jumbo Squid and Jumbo Flying Squid. In Spanish speaking parts of South America, it is called Diablo Rojo which means Red Devil. The creature is equipped with 10 arms and a really sharp beak. It is known for its aggressiveness, but research suggests that these animals are only aggressive during feeding time. During feeding frenzies, they have no problem retorting to cannibalism. When not feeding, they seem to be fairly docile.

If you want to learn more about this aggressive predatory squid and its newfound wanderlust, KQED has devoted the Season 2 Web Premiere of the program QUEST to the Humboldt Squid (Dosidicus gigas). QUEST is a TV, radio, web, and education series that explores science, environment and nature in Northern California. You can find the episode here: http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2008/03/26/quest-season-2-web-premiere-the-fierce-humboldt-squid/