By Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The six sea lions found dead in traps near Bonneville Dam apparently were not shot to death, federal officials said Wednesday, leaving open the questions of how the animals died or whether humans killed them.
NOAA fisheries spokesman Brian Gorman in Seattle said Wednesday that preliminary results of a necropsy found no evidence of recent gunshot wounds but found numerous shallow puncture wounds in one animal consistent with sea lion bite marks.
He says the department still is trying to determine how the animals died and how the doors to the traps in which they were found had been closed.
Because the first examination of the carcasses turned up no slugs, investigators had believed the animals were shot at close range with high-powered rifles, the bullets passing through the flesh.
On Tuesday, Gorman said, X-rays found metal fragments in soft tissue near the neck of two animals.
A metal slug was found in the blubber of one animal.
But, he said, neither the fragments nor the slug appear to be fatal and may have been from old wounds, he said.