Environmental Policy and Wildlife Management

Washington Reps. Michael Baumgartner, a Republican, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat, are jointly pressing Congress to allow more aggressive lethal control of California and Steller sea lions on the Columbia River, arguing booming sea lion populations protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act are a 'serious threat' to endangered salmon and steelhead that are vital to tribal culture, sport fishing and the regional economy. At a recent House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing on sea lion predation in the Pacific Northwest, both lawmakers called for broader federal latitude on sea lion removals, with Baumgartner urging 'save more salmon, shoot more sea lions' and Gluesenkamp Perez calling the tens of thousands of large pinnipeds an invasive predatory problem moving farther upriver.