Letters to the Editor: Hooray for the stubborn sea lions that annoy fisherman

To the editor: The incalculable value of sea lions to the West Coast ecosystem and economy is beyond dispute. For once, a natural predator is permitted to reclaim something of its historical niche and range without facing annihilation.

By comparison, red wolves have been so nearly obliterated in North Carolina that only a few dozen manage to eke out an existence where once they thrived. At one point it was unclear whether the species even survived. Grizzly bears tread every day amid fearful peril, practically invisible in the lower 48 states. Every animate creature in America is liable to be extinguished by the lethal “cyanide bombs” gleefully enabled by the Trump administration.

Sea lions remain one glorious holdout, literally puffing their chests out in pride of their undisputed might. Yet, resourceful though they be, they are not the ones bottom-trawling the global fishery into oblivion.

And, who wouldn’t like to bite a tourist?

Dave O’Connell, Gaithersburg, Md.

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To the editor: I’m sure that I’ve been around as many sea lions as the reporter of this article, and I’ve never thought of them as “stinky.”

This piece quotes a fisherman as saying that “the general attitude in the fishing community is this: ‘Shoot ‘em.’” Where am I reading this, Fox News?

Sea lions are stinky? You know what’s really stinky? It’s the human race, stinking up the land and the oceans.

Steve Baker, Los Angeles