Under provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NOAA Fisheries Service received a formal request in late 2006 from Oregon, Washington and Idaho to authorize those states to kill certain California sea lions below Bonneville Dam that are eating at-risk federally protected salmon and steelhead.

As one important step in considering that request and as a requirement of the marine-mammal law, we appointed an 18-member task force to consider the states’ application and make recommendations.

The task force, which held three public meetings in Portland in September and October, sent its recommendation to us Nov. 5. All except one of the task force members recommended that we approve the states’ request for authority to “lethally remove” the sea lions. The task force considered non-lethal alternatives, as required by the law, but did not suggest any particular techniques be used as a prerequisite for lethal removal.

We’ll consider the task force recommendations and produce a draft environmental assessment in January. Following a two-week comment period on that draft, we expect to make a final decision on the states’ request by March 2008, before the start of the spring salmon migration season.

• Task Force Final Report (PDF 82KB)
• Appendix A, Task Force Protocols (PDF 42KB)
• Appendix B, Minority Opinion (PDF 29KB)
• Appendix C, Agendas & Meeting Notes (PDF 353KB)
• Appendix D, Table 3.3 (PDF 212KB)
• Appendix E, List of Presentations (PDF 21KB)
• Appendix F, List of Attendees (PDF 28KB)
• Appendix G, List of Federal Register & Media Notices (PDF 43KB)
• Appendix H, List of Documents Provided (PDF 17KB)