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Dozens of sea lions in western Canada have spent the past few weeks feasting on fish without restriction after infiltrating inside salmon industrial reserves and refusing any signal to leave.
Cermaq, a fish farming company with branches in Norway, Chile and Canada, said the cunning predators managed to avoid nets and electric fences in late March in a massive flood event at Tofino Reserves in the Canadian region of British Columbia.
Local animal protection groups opposed to fish stocks warned that sea lions themselves are at risk as long as they spend time on the farm.
“We saw a sea lion crossing the fence jumping inside the net hanging over the reserves. He got stuck there and tried hard to free himself, “said Bonny Glambeck of a local environmental group. “There are a lot of ropes and pipes there so we worry they will get stuck.”
Over the past decade, more than 100 sea lions have reportedly died trapped in fishing nets, as has the case with a humpback whale, activists say, stressing the dangers that reserve nets pose to wildlife.
The company says there is an outlet in the reserves if the “robbers” want to leave, but the offer seems to have been rejected by sea lions.
In 2016, following a similar entry of animals into Cermaq reserves, authorities gave permission to kill sea lions and seals, but defense groups said there were strict requirements not to kill any of the sea lions.
The fish farm can hold up to 500,000 Atlantic salmon and in March the process of harvesting them began when the visit of the sea lions came.
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