Hold Me Closer Wavy Dancer
photo credit: KOIN News
The sea lions are back at the port of Astoria, Oregon and it’s becoming a ‘Road Runner’ cartoon, again. And the humans are masterfully playing the role of Wile E. Coyote.
They’ve been having an ongoing struggle with hundreds of sea lions overrunning their docks for some time and their efforts to remove them have been … hilarious.
Port officials have been trying all kinds of methods to scare off the masses. Even comically utilizing a motorized fake orca.
Yep. A fake orca.
All of these efforts have been met with failure and the sea lions are still lounging on the docks, seemingly taunting Port officials.
Well, here we go again. Another novel idea has been deployed in the battle of man versus relaxing sea lions – giant inflatable tube dancers!
Yep, the waving neon blow-up dancers you usually see at used car dealerships or carnivals.
From the Huffington Post:
Immediately after the dancers were turned on Thursday, sending their plastic bodies flapping wildly in the air, most of the sea lions desperately dove for cover in the water.
But only time will tell if the effect will last.
“The thing about the sea lions is, they’re very intelligent animals,” port official Robert Evert told Astoria station KGW TV, “and so if they realize these are not a threat or harm to them, it’s possible they’ll get back on the docks.”
Based on all their other failed attempts, we think the sea lions will learn to ignore the waving inflatable dancers and get back to relaxing on the docks. Eating all of the salmon that are on their summer run up the Columbia River gets exhausting.
We’ll keep you updated on the Port’s efforts.
h/t: The Huffington Post
