05/07/08

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ Federal fisheries officials now say the
six sea lions found dead in traps near Bonneville Dam apparently
were not shot to death.

Spokesman Brian Gorman of the National Marine Fisheries Service
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.

Gorman says X-rays found metal fragments in soft tissue near the
neck of two animals.

He says a metal slug was found in the blubber of one animal, but
neither the fragments nor the slug appear to be fatal and may have
been from old wounds.

The agency is still trying to determine how the animals died.

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