Crabbin' and River Trip Continued.

This is Joe and George cooking the crab.
After cooking the crab they put them in cold water.
California Sea Lions.
The big red hose is used to suck fish out of the boats into the cannery.

While on our outing we got to see California Sea Lions. There are many of them here in the river and are seen as a pest by the local fishermen. They are protected in that they cannot be killed but are causing a lot of problems for the men who make their living on the waters. George said a Lion will eat 50 pounds of salmon in a day. There are 3800 lions in the river area and at 50 pounds each day that comes to 190,000 pounds of salmon a day. That is about 5 semi truck loads per day. They go right through a fisherman’s net and also get on the piers and they really smell. The smell is very nauseating. The government brands some of them to try to track them. Imagine paying for a docking spot for your boat and when you get there the dock is filled with bellowing sea lions that bark at you and will eventually move – but only with some hesitation. George said there are more sea lions now than ever but the govt. won’t allow a hunting season on them.
Joe said that when he has fishermen out and they have caught a big fish, he has reached over the boat and just as he is about to grab the fish a sea lion comes up out of the water and takes the fish practically out of his hands. He said they roar real loud and shred the fish right in front him. Not only does it scare the heck out of him, but his customer that is paying to fish isn’t very happy about it either. He said the lions are just getting too tame.

I didn’t mention that when we brought our crab back they cooked them on the dock and we enjoyed them fresh. They were really good.