A giant, motorized fake orca deployed to scare off hundreds of sea lions ensconced on the docks of an Oregon fishing village capsized before it could complete its scarecrow mission, officials said on Friday.
Officials in Astoria, Oregon, were working on Friday to lift the 9.7m whale — a licensed boat — out of the water to assess the damage, Port of Astoria permit and program manager Rob Evert said
The town would not make a second attempt with the damaged whale until August, port executive director Jim Knight said.
Photo: Joshua Bessex/Daily Astorian via AP
“Sea lions 1, Astoria 0,” he said.
Sea lions typically show up in the town of about 10,000 people on the Columbia River in winter and leave as the weather warms. This year, they came in February and did not depart, officials said.
Hundreds now sleep and sit on the docks daily, eating fish that sustain the local community.
Researchers think warming Pacific Ocean water sent the sea lions, which have not been known to reside on the river, north in search of food.
Officials had hoped that the whale, a sea lion predator, would scare them off when other tactics, such as electric mats and bright beach balls placed outside the docks, have failed.
The mission hit bumpy waters from its start on Thursday, after the Island Mariner whale-watching cruise company from Washington State drove its promotional whale to Astoria.
Shortly after the whale was launched, its engine flooded.
Then the boat capsized, with its pilot needing rescue, Evert said.
However, Evert suggested that the whale might still have had some success, citing a decline in sea lions on the docks on Friday.
“Our numbers are way down,” he said, adding that he could not be certain whether it was the sight of the whale or a decrease in fish near the end of the Chinook salmon run that had caused the sea lions to scatter.
“It was dead silence when the orca moved across the marina,” Evert said. “I think that we will see that the remainder of the sea lions disappear.”
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