What kind of person shoots a sea lion in the face?

In San Fransisco, California a sea lion was found on a San Francisco Bay-area beach in December with buckshot embedded in its skull. Its becoming an all too common occurence. There were 43 reported marine mammal shootings in 2009 in the waters off the California coast -- nine more than in 2008 and 14 more than five years earlier. Of the reported shootings in 2009, all were sea lions.

They are supposed to be a protected species, protected under the Marine Protection Act of 1972 which protects sea lions, seals, whales dolphins, sea otters and marine otters, walrus, polar bears, manatees and dugongs.

Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits the taking of marine animal. The U.S. Congress defines "take" as “the act of hunting, killing, capture, and/or harassment of any marine mammal; or, the attempt at such."

But the National Marine Fisheries Service granted Oregon and Wahington a waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, allowing them to kill nuisance animals eating wild salmon.

The three agencies responsible for enacting the protection of the Marine Mammal Act are the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admininstration, and the Marine Mammal Commission. We ask that you enforce protections and stop allowing other agencies with special interests to shoot marine mammals.