Lunging sea lion highlights need for stricter wildlife feeding rules: DFO

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) saysvideo of a sea lion dragginga young girl into the waters of Steveston, B.C. reinforces theneed for changesto Canada's ill-defined rulesaround feeding wildlife.

The videowhich has been viewed online more than 20 million timesshowspieces ofbread beingthrown tothe animal before it lunged at the child.

"Any time you're habituating a large,powerful marine mammal with large teeth to take food, and habituate them to associate food with people, it's just a bad idea," DFOmarinemammalcoordinator Paul Cottrell told theCBC's On the Coast host Stephen Quinn.

Marine mammal feedingseen 'coast-wide'

He says Steveston's Fisherman's Wharf is far from the only marina in B.C. where visitors like to feed the wildlife.

"It's something that we have coast-wide in certain marinas where there are individuals... that are feeding seals and sea lions, and they're becoming habituated and can become aggressive, especially if they think you have food," said Cottrell.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada hasspearheadedefforts to end the practice in places like Victoria and Oak Bay, largely through education.

While Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations say disturbances to the animals illegal,Cottrell says thelanguage isunclear around what exactly a disturbance is, making enforcement difficult.

"It's not defined very well, it's quite broad," he said.

Updating Marine Mammal Regulations

There are proposed changes to that languageawaiting approval in Ottawathat would make it explicitly illegal to touch, feed, or swim with marine mammals.

But Cottrellsays there's no guarantee those changes will become law.

"It's been a long go. It's actually over a decade we've been looking at these amendments and trying to get them through," he said.

Meanwhile, to prevent more incidents like the one in Steveston, DFO officials haveestablished an informationcampaign, and havebeen putting up signs in marinas where marine mammal feeding is common, warning of the potential danger.

"We're doing our best to educate and put up signsand work with marinas and port authorities across B.C., but with this recent incident, it just underscores how serious an incident can happen," he said.

"We're really hoping those [proposed regulation changes] go through."