A federal judge on Wednesday refused to stop Oregon and Washington from trapping and killing California sea lions at Bonneville Dam this spring to keep them from gobbling endangered salmon.

The Humane Society of the United States filed a lawsuit against the plan and asked for a preliminary court injunction to stop it.

Humane Society attorneys argued that culling sea lions won't significantly benefit threatened salmon and steelhead runs. Shooting the animals would harm Columbia River kayakers and others who have relationships with individual sea lions, they said.

But U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman rejected the injunction request. The judge agreed that it appears somewhat arbitrary to crack down on sea lions when fishing kills more salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act. But initial evidence indicates that sea lions do "very serious" harm to endangered and threatened salmon, Mosman ruled.

"It's a rather remarkable thing to say that (destroying) an individual animal will cause irreparable harm," Mosman said early in the hearing. He later called the Humane Society's evidence of damage "far less weighty" than the government's.

State officials said they could begin trapping sea lions as early as Tuesday, targeting animals that have been seen eating federally protected fish at the dam.

Click here to read the complete story.