We have learned that ecosystems are very complicated things to manage indeed. Here is an excerpt from the report that gives examples of what ecosystem considerations we may face with managing seals and sea lions. For example, South African Cape fur seals feed on both anchovy and squid, and if the fur seal population were reduced, the squid population which also consumes anchovies would increase and cause a reduction in anchovies available to the fishery. In another example, because Pacific harbor seals and California sea lions are predators of lamprey, decreasing the seal and sea lion population could increase the lamprey population. He may be more valuable to the salmon population alive than dead.
Nature is messy and complicated.
Surprising relationships are being discovered in nature all the time - things that we would never have predicted. So, the federal government has decided that it may be necessary to permanently remove seals or sea lions in certain cases, but we need to answer several questions first. So far Ballard is the only place where all these questions have been answered. They learn to ignore and outwit our best attempts to fool and frighten them. Anyway, there are clear reasons why we don't just shoot the seals and sea lions to save the salmon.