Sec. 2. Findings
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The Congress finds the following: There are 13 groups of salmon and steelhead that are listed as threatened species or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 that migrate through the lower Columbia River. The people of the Northwest United States are united in their desire to restore healthy salmon and steelhead runs, as they are integral to the region’s culture and economy. The Columbia River treaty tribes retain important rights with respect to salmon and steelhead.
Federal, State, and tribal governments have spent billions of dollars to assist the recovery of Columbia River salmon and steelhead populations. One of the factors impacting salmonid populations is increased predation by marine mammals, including California sea lions. The population of California sea lions has increased 6-fold over the last 3 decades, and is currently greater than 250,000 animals. In recent years, more than 1,000 California sea lions have been foraging in the lower 145 miles of the Columbia River up to Bonneville Dam during the peak spring salmonid run before returning to the California coast to mate.
The percentage of the spring salmonid run that has been eaten or killed by California sea lions at Bonneville Dam has increased 7-fold since 2002. In recent years, California sea lions have with greater frequency congregated near Bonneville Dam and have entered the fish ladders. These California sea lions have not been responsive to extensive hazing methods employed near Bonneville Dam to discourage this behavior. The process established under the 1994 amendment to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to address aggressive sea lion behavior is protracted and will not work in a timely enough manner to protect threatened and endangered salmonids in the near term.
In the interest of protecting Columbia River threatened and endangered salmonids, a temporary expedited procedure is urgently needed to allow removal of the minimum number of California sea lions as is necessary to protect the passage of threatened and endangered salmonids in the Columbia River and its tributaries. On December 21, 2010, the independent Pinniped-Fishery Interaction Task Force recommended lethally removing more of the California sea lions in 2011. On August 18, 2011, the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho applied to the National Marine Fisheries Service, under section 120(b)(1)(A) of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 ( 16 U.S.C. 1389(b)(1)(A) ), for the lethal removal of sea lions that the States determined are having a significant negative impact on the recovery of Columbia River and Snake River salmon and steelhead.
On September 12, 2011, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced it was accepting the States’ application for lethal removal of sea lions and that it would reconvene the Pinniped-Fishery Interaction Task Force to consider the States’ application. This Act will ensure the necessary authority for permits under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to be issued in a timely fashion. During a June 14, 2011, hearing, the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives received testimony from State and tribal witnesses expressing concern that significant pinniped predation of important Northwest fish resources other than salmonids is severely impacting fish stocks determined by both Federal and State fishery management agencies to be at low levels of abundance, and that this cannot be addressed by section 120 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 ( 16 U.S.C. 1389 ), which as in effect before the enactment of this Act restricted control of predatory pinnipeds’ impact only with respect to endangered salmonids.
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