[3] House Committee Mulls Sea Lion-Kill Bill

A House subcommittee heard testimony Aug. 2 on a bill that would allow the "lethal removal" of salmon-munching sea lions near Bonneville Dam.

With both the salmon and sea lions protected under different federal statutes--the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act--the proposed bill is a sign that Northwest politicians are fed up with the slow pace of solving the predation problem.

H.R. 1769 is sponsored by Washington Congressmen Brain Baird (D), Norm Dicks (D) and Doc Hastings (R), and Greg Walden (R) of Oregon, as an attempt to leapfrog the lengthy, cumbersome process now in place that could lead NOAA Fisheries to the same conclusion for handling some of the pesky mammals.

The politicians pointed to a run of steelhead in Lake Washington that was extirpated by California sea lions at the Ballard Locks in Seattle during the 1990s. The decision to lethally remove the sea lions ground on for years before the feds finally OK'd their lethal removal. But the drastic action was never implemented.

Last spring, despite an intense harassment program, the Corps of Engineers estimated that sea lions ate their way through about four percent of the upriver spring run, just in the vicinity of the Bonneville Dam. One particular sea lion nearly doubled his weight to over a thousand pounds while he was there.

The final tally was likely much higher than the Corps' estimate of around 3,500 or so salmon, a number based on observer sightings.

The proposal would allow Washington, Oregon and lower Columbia tribes to lethally take up to one percent of the "potential biological removal level" of the sea lion population, defined in the MMPA as 8,333 individuals, so a maximum of 83 sea lions could be exterminated.

"It should be noted," Rep. Baird said in his testimony, "that I share the view of many that far less than 83 sea lions will ever need to be taken to solve the problem on the Columbia River."

But the feds say progress is already being made. In fact, on the day of the hearing before the Natural Resources Committee's subcommittee on fisheries, wildlife and oceans, the federal agency announced the creation of an 18-member task force to look at the states' official request to kill some of the sea lions at the dam.

However, in his written testimony, regional NOAA Fisheries administrator Bob Lohn said the bill would be perceived as reducing protections for marine mammals. He suggested that changes to the current process would be better than the "stop-gap measure" of H.B. 1769.

Lohn also pointed out that the task force will meet in early September and it is required to have its recommendations into NMFS within 60 days. Lohn said his agency intends to approve or deny the states' application by March 2008.

Representatives of the fishery agencies in Washington and Oregon testified in support of the bill. ODFW's Robin Brown said the options available under the MMPA take too long for timely action.

WDFW's Guy Norman pointed out that after the experience with sea lions at the Ballard Locks, state and federal agencies developed a set of recommendations in 1999 to help Congress change the act to allow the agencies to manage the conflicts better, but the politicians did nothing.

The subcommittee also heard from Sharon Young, of the Humane Society, which is opposed to the legislation because it would "short-circuit" NEPA review and open up "other possibilities for carve-outs for expanded lethal control of marine mammals."

Young said the protracted process was NMFS' own fault, since the agency failed to meet its statutory deadline for convening the task force. She said that NMFS regional office staff told her the delay was mainly due to the desire of biologists to have a "fairly uninterrupted summer field research season."

Young said BPA's own statements about increased juvenile survival of the spring run and prospects of good returns next year imply that the fate of the fish "is largely independent of the predation" and that some listed chinook runs are harvested at over a 50-percent rate, far higher than the four-percent predation rate of the sea lions.

Baird said he disagreed with the Humane Society's claims that the bill wouldn't accomplish anything meaningful.

"California sea lions have turned the Columbia River into a salmon buffet," Baird said.

H.B. 1769 would also allow lower Columbia tribes to take lethal steps to remove sea lions from around the dam. Yakama tribal council member Fidelia Andy, who is also chair of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, testified that predation could be more like 17 percent in the vicinity of the dam, if biologists are right that the sea lions eat two or so fish a day. That would mean the 100 or so sea lions near the dam for almost three months would consume more than 17,000 chinook, while the tribes are only allowed 6.7 percent of the run.

She said the tribes don't take lightly the NEPA exemption that the legislation would provide, but it would only last five years and focus on the most aggressive marine mammals. She said it was time to take another look at the Marine Mammal Protection Act because some populations have achieved their optimum sustainable levels.

Marine mammal numbers on the West Coast have tripled since falling under the protection of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The California sea lion population is now estimated at about 250,000. Steller sea lions make up another 31,000, and the harbor seal population in Oregon and Washington adds up to about 25,000 more pinnipeds. -B. R.

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