An update on sea lion deaths

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- The deaths of six sea lions at Bonneville Dam remains a whodunit. On May 4, six carcasses were discovered in a pair of side-by-side floating traps below the dam. State employees had been using the traps to capture and relocate sea lions feasting on endangered salmon at a man-made bottleneck. Federal and state authorities initially speculated that the animals had been shot.... But officials backed away from that assertion a week later after revealing that investigators found no fresh bullet wounds. They eventually told the public that the animals probably died of heat stroke while trapped in the cages. The federal investigation remains open almost four months later, to the irritation of some fishermen who believe they were falsely maligned. ‘Given how quick officials were to blame the sport fishing community, it’s just incorrigible they’re this slow to find and deal with the accountability for this issue,’ said Liz Hamilton, executive director of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association in Portland. ‘It’s sort of like that retraction that gets printed on Page 32, and the original story is on Page One.’... Plenty of questions remain unanswered. The animals reportedly died of heat stroke, but it’s not uncommon for sea lions to be out of the water for longer periods of times -- and temperatures were mild the night of May 3-4. It’s also unclear how the sea lions became trapped in the cages in the first place.