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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2018 Port prepares to boost video surveillance along waterfront By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian The Port of Astoria Com- mission has approved spend- ing $115,000 to improve video surveillance. The contract with Watch- Point Video includes nearly 40 additional cameras along the central waterfront and the Port’s two marinas on the west and east end of Astoria, includ- ing new license-plate readers and improvements to the Port’s existing cameras. The contract also includes new servers to store footage and equipment to wirelessly transfer footage to the Port’s central office. The Port has experienced issues with theft on the cen- tral waterfront and cameras too outdated to see license plates or the make and model of vehicles. The new cam- eras will allow the Port to read license plates and poten- tially use facial recognition technology. The improved surveil- lance is being paid for by a $285,000 security grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including approximately $70,000 in pre- vious Pier 1 lighting upgrades that covered a 25 percent local match. The agency will spend the rest of the grant on fenc- ing, equipment to scan worker credentials and improved electrical infrastructure, said Matt McGrath, the Port’s director of operations. The Port Commission has also approved spend- ing up to $60,000 to replace wooden pilings along the west side of Pier 1, where seafood processors take in product from boats, once the in-wa- ter work window reopens in November. The Port doesn’t go out for bids on such piling replace- ments because locally based Bergerson Construction always comes back the cheap- est, McGrath said, adding the Port is looking at five-year piling replacement contracts to make the process more competitive. The Port Commission approved a contract for nearly $14,000 to repair two dock fingers in an area of the west- end marina recently dredged by the Port of Ilwaco, Wash- ington. The marina had not been dredged for more than 10 years, McGrath said, and the docks had snapped. The Port also declared surplus a water evaporator the agency used to remove water from a boat wash sta- tion on the Pier 3 boatyard. The system was too expen- sive to operate, McGrath said, but is worth about $10,000 to $15,000. Sea lions feast on fish in survival war By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press NEWPORT — The 700- pound sea lion blinked in the sun, sniffed the sea air and then lazily shifted to the edge of the truck bed and plopped onto the beach below. Freed from the cage that carried him to the ocean, the massive marine mammal shuf- fled into the surf, looked left, looked right and then started swimming north as a collec- tive groan went up from wild- life officials who watched from the shore. After two days spent trap- ping and relocating the ani- mal designated #U253, he was headed back to where he started — a river 130 miles from the Pacific Ocean that has become an all-you-can-eat fish buffet for hungry sea lions. “I think he’s saying, ‘Ah, crap! I’ve got to swim all the way back?’” said Bryan Wright, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife scientist. It’s a frustrating dance between California sea lions and Oregon wildlife manag- ers that’s become all too famil- iar in recent months. The state is trying to evict dozens of the federally protected animals from an inland river where they feast on salmon and steel- head that are listed under the Endangered Species Act. The bizarre survival war has intensified recently as the sea lion population rebounds and fish populations decline in the Pacific Northwest. The sea lions breed each summer off Southern Califor- nia and northern Mexico, then the males cruise up the Pacific Coast to forage. Hunted for their thick fur, the mammals’ numbers dropped dramati- cally but have rebounded from 30,000 in the late 1960s to about 300,000 today due to the 1972 Marine Mammal Protec- tion Act. With their numbers grow- ing, the dog-faced pinnipeds are venturing ever farther inland on the watery highways of the Columbia River and its tributaries in Oregon and Washington state — and their appetite is having disastrous consequences, scientists say. AP Photo/Don Ryan #U253 leaps out of a cage toward the beach and the Pa- cific Ocean as Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife scientist Bryan Wright holds the gate open in Newport. Five days later, the sea lion was back at Willamette Falls, hungry for more fish. In Oregon, the sea lions are intercepting protected fish on their way to spawning grounds above Willamette Falls, a horseshoe-shaped waterfall about 25 miles south of Port- land. Last winter, a record- low 512 wild winter steel- head completed the journey, said Shaun Clements, the state wildlife agency’s senior policy adviser. Less than 30 years ago, that number was more than 15,000, according to state numbers. “We’re estimating that there’s a 90 percent probabil- ity that one of the populations in the Willamette River could go extinct if sea lion preda- tion continues unchecked,” he said. “Of all the adults that are returning to the falls here, a quarter of them are getting eaten.” Clements estimates the sea lions also are eating about 9 percent of the spring Chinook salmon, a species prized by Native American tribes still allowed to fish for them. Oregon wildlife managers say sea lions are beginning to move into even smaller trib- utaries where they had never been seen before and where some of the healthiest stocks of the threatened fish exist. The mammals also have been spot- ted in small rivers in Washing- ton state that are home to frag- ile fish populations. California sea lions are not listed under the Endan- gered Species Act, but killing them requires special authori- zation under the Marine Mam- mal Protection Act, which was changed to address the issue of fish predation. Biologists this spring started trapping the sea lions in the Willamette River and releasing them at the coast. They also have applied with the federal government to kill the worst offenders to protect the fish runs. Native tribes, which have fished for salmon and steel- head for generations, support limited sea lion kills because of the cultural value of the fish, said Doug Hatch, a senior fish- eries scientist with the Colum- bia River Intertribal Fish Commission. “You’re pitting this pro- tected population that has been fully recovered against these Endangered Species Act-listed fish,” Hatch said. “We think it’s an easy choice.” If U.S. officials grant the request, the trap-and-kill pro- gram would expand a similar and highly controversial effort on another major Pacific North- west river. Oregon and Wash- ington state wildlife managers are allowed to kill up to 93 sea lions trapped each year at Bon- neville Dam on the Columbia River under certain conditions. MARCH SPECIALS $ 2 In the past decade, the agency has removed 190 sea lions there. Of those, 168 were euthanized, seven died in acci- dents during trapping and 15 were placed in captivity, according to state data. The Humane Society of the United States sued over the trap-and-kill program and may sue again if it’s allowed on the Willamette River, said Sharon Young, the organiza- tion’s field director for marine wildlife. The animals are not the only problem facing wild winter steelhead and Chinook salmon, she said. Hydroelectric dams that block rivers, agricultural run- off, damage to spawning grounds and competition with hatchery-bred fish have all hurt the native species, Young said. And new sea lions will take the place of those that are killed, she added. “It’s easier to say, ‘If I kill that sea lion, at least I keep him from eating that fish.’ But if you don’t deal with the cause of the problem, you’re not going to help the fish,” she said. “It’s like a treadmill of death. You kill one, and another one will come.” While Oregon awaits word on the sea lions’ fate, wild- life managers are trapping them and hauling them to the ocean, which can sometimes seem futile. Five days after his 2 ½-hour drive to the Oregon Coast, #U253 was back at Willamette Falls, hungry for more fish. AP Photo/Gregory Bull A gray whale off the California coast. Gray whale sightings up off Northwest coast By JES BURNS Oregon Public Broadcasting Gray whale sightings are up on the Oregon and Wash- ington state coast in recent weeks. Counts at Oregon’s Whale Watching Center at Depoe Bay have been between five and 10 per day, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, although many more pass the along the coast undetected. Park ranger Luke Par- sons says the actual number of whales passing by on their way from Baja to feeding grounds in the Arctic is rela- tively typical for this time of year. “What is unusual is how nice the weather has been. And this has led to many people coming out to the coast and being able to see a lot more of these animals than we’re really used to in March,” he said. But it may not just be the weather. An American Ceta- cean Society project in Los Angeles has been track- ing the migration for 35 years. Director Alisa Schul- man-Janiger says there was a pulse of whales that passed Los Angeles a few weeks back, heading north to feed- ing grounds in the Arctic. “Our northbound counts are very high. We’re well above our northbound aver- age,” she said. And that means those whales are passing Oregon and Washington state right now. “It doesn’t surprise me you’re seeing a nice big bump in northbound grays,” Schulman-Janiger said. In addition, Schul- man-Janiger says West Coast gray whales experienced a baby boom over the past six years, and the population has increased significantly. Overall though, it’s dif- ficult to pinpoint exactly what’s happening with gray whales off the West Coast. Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration do annual calf counts off Cali- fornia. Other tracking proj- ects rely on citizen scientists and trained volunteers that count the whales from shore. But the whales don’t always travel near the coast, and often rough oceans and bad weather can make them difficult to spot. Gray whales are expected to be passing near the Ore- gon and Washington state coast until June. Mothers with calves generally pass later in the spring. Parsons, the ranger, said he’s also been seeing hump- backs and recently spent a morning tracking a pod of orcas off Oregon’s coast. Staff at Cape Disappoint- ment State Park in Washing- ton state are reporting high numbers of gray whale sight- ings, as well. Oregon’s spring Whale Watch Week programs run from Saturday through March 31. WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Rise with Christ! 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