Trout Hapless Prey at Fish Ladder : Net to Protect Steelhead From Seals to Be Deployed

For three years, wily sea lions feeding on steelhead trout at Seattle’s Ballard Locks have outwitted game agents desperate to protect the endangered fish.

Game agents renew the battle this week by stretching a giant net across the entrance to a canal leading to the lock’s fish ladder in what could be man’s last peaceful effort to keep the bloated sea lions at bay.

The 230-foot-wide nylon net will be fastened to cables about 50 feet from the opening to the fish ladder, where steelhead prized by fishermen and local Indians have become the hapless prey of the hungry sea lions.

The once endangered but now plentiful sea mammals have grown fatter in recent years by feeding on fish caught near the locks that elevate boat and ship traffic into Seattle’s inland waters and Lake Washington.

Migrating fish are often slowed by the relatively narrow opening to the fish ladder, which allows them to pass around the locks and reach fresh water spawning grounds by jumping up a series of higher and higher pools.

All man-made attempts to drive the sea lions away have failed, including the use of underwater firecrackers and imitation killer-whale noises, which worked until the sea lions figured out there was no danger. Also fruitless were efforts to capture the sea lions and the offer of dead fish tainted with an offensive chemical.

Effectiveness in Doubt

Whether the $150,000 net will keep the sea lions at bay is anyone’s guess.

“Having dealt with the sea lions before, I know better than to make hard-core predictions,” says Bob Byrne of the state Department of Wildlife.

The net also represents a web behind which previously divided groups of humans have finally united to rid the locks of fish-gorging sea lions.

The landside players in the battle of Ballard have been environmentalists, fishermen, the state Department of Wildlife and two federal agencies: the National Marine Fisheries Service, which protects sea lions, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which, as controller of navigation, reigns supreme at the locks.

But the stars of the confrontation have been the sea lions, which have won the hearts of many and been given nicknames like “Herschel,” “Thrasher” and “Blue-eye.”

Still, the burly mammals have not enamored themselves with fishermen or game agents, who wince when they see one of the sassy sea lions paddle up to the locks, dive down and come up frolicking with a half-eaten 10-pound steelhead between its teeth.

Count Comes Back

In the last four years, the feeding has dropped the local annual run of wild and hatchery-produced steelhead--which had been decimated by fishing during the 1960s, then painstakingly brought back by game officials--from 1,600 to 400.

In its latest assessment of the problem, the department lists “shooting” as one of the alternatives.

Although Byrne says shooting is “absolutely not” the department’s preference, environmentalists are angry that shooting is even mentioned as a possibility.

“The sea lion barrier, we think, is a step in the right direction,” said Ben Deeble of Greenpeace.

In 1972, Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act, outlawing all but highly restricted hunting of sea lions and harbor seals. Only as the species have began to multiply into abundance have fishermen been allowed to thin them out to protect their catch, obtaining “certificates of inclusion” from the government to legally shoot the predators.

In late 1985, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made another exception in the case of the Ballard Locks, ruling the sea lions had become a nuisance and could be removed even if those efforts endangered the animals.

Coexistence Preferable

“We’re convinced that we can have both healthy marine mammal populations and healthy steelhead populations peacefully coexist in the waters of the Northwest,” Deeble said.

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Byrne. “But I think the public has to be aware that there’s going to be some difficult choices made in the future (if the net doesn’t work). Somebody’s going to have to decide and I’m glad it’s not me.”