Fish-Hogging Sea Lions Sent Back to California

Four bellowing sea lions were herded into crates and hoisted onto trucks Monday in an effort to save fish runs by sending the animals back to their breeding grounds in California.

The sea lions, some as large as 1,000 pounds, occasionally roared but mostly sniffed as federal and state agents removed the voracious fish-eaters from floating traps at the Ballard Locks.

The trap-and-truck operation, sponsored by the state Department of Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service, is a last-resort method of moving the sea lions away from the mouth of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Migrating steelhead and salmon that swim the canal from Puget Sound to Lake Washington are easy prey for sea lions hunting along the narrow waterway and near fishladders at the locks.