Smart sea lion vexes engineers

CASCADE LOCKS, Ore. -- A particularly crafty sea lion is befuddling the Army Corps of Engineers, who have come to believe the 1,000-pound mammal is either from hell -- or from Harvard.

The sea lion and his ilk have been camping out at the base of the Bonneville Dam and munching chinook salmon trying to migrate up the Columbia River to spawn.

One particular sea lion -- named C404 because of a brand applied by a state and federal program -- has figured out how to get into fish ladders that help fish past the dam -- where endangered salmon and other fish become his easy prey.

The engineers have used everything legal to get rid of him. But C404 has given them the flipper.

"If he were in a litter of puppies, he's the one you would pick," said Robert Stansell, a fish biologist with the Corps at Bonneville.