Dam Guardian Reports
May 9, 2013
Dam Guardian Report - May 9, 2013
By Ashley Lenton, Dam Guardian Campaign Leader and Sandy McElhaney, Dam Guardian Campaign Volunteer
Nine sea lions were trapped behind this tarp on April 30, 2013Photo: Sea ShepherdWe have come to think of Tuesdays as “Terrible Tuesday” on the Dam Guardian Campaign. Over the course of the last three Tuesdays, 20 sea lions have been trapped at the Dam, of those 11 were branded, two were taken into captivity and one was killed for the crime of eating salmon. The trapping and branding begins under the cloak of darkness. In an action that seems to take a page from the playbook of the infamous Taiji dolphin kille ... Read More
April 22, 2013
Dam Guardian Report - April 22, 2013
By Ashley Lenton, Dam Guardian Campaign Leader and Sandy McElhaney, Dam Guardian Campaign Volunteer
A seal bomb explodes within feet of these sea lionsPhoto: Aaron Hall / Sea ShepherdThe day we had been dreading arrived on Tuesday, April 16, 2013, at the Bonneville Dam. On that date, workers from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) extinguished the life of sea lion C022. We knew C022 as “Brian the Lion.” As part of our “Champion a Sea Lion” program, people from around the world gave a name to each of the condemned sea lions targeted for lethal removal from the Bonneville Dam for the ... Read More
April 8, 2013
Dam Guardian Report - April 8, 2013
By Ashley Lenton, Dam Guardian Campaign Leader and Sandy McElhaney, Dam Guardian Campaign Volunteer
Sadly, we know that the branding is merely the initiation into the fraternity of hell that awaits the sea lions who eventually journey on towards the Bonneville Dam. This blood stained brand still looks painful even 4 days laterPhoto: Sea ShepherdIt is hard to imagine a place that exhibits as much contempt for marine mammals as Taiji, Japan, except perhaps the states of Oregon and Washington in the United States’ Pacific Northwest. Taiji is the notorious location of our Cove Guardian Campaign and the Columbia River in Oreg ... Read More
March 26, 2013
Dam Guardian Report: March 26, 2013
By Ashley Lenton, Dam Guardian Campaign Leader and Sandy McElhaney, Dam Guardian Campaign Volunteer
We observed sea lions with fur that had caught fire and several convulsing in pain. Bald eagle soars over the Columbia River at the Bonneville DamPhoto: Andrew Lynch / Sea ShepherdThe beginning of the 2013 Dam Guardian Campaign saw moments of great beauty as we watched eagles soar above the Columbia River Gorge, and then hours upon hours of humanity at its very worst as helpless sea lions were branded on Palm Sunday at the Port of Astoria. Our Dam Guardians are present at the Bonneville Dam and also at the Port of Astoria to monitor t ... Read More
