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lethally remove nuisance pinnipeds. The third option is 

 to create a regional task force to address contentious 

 issues involving nuisance animal management and advise 

 the secretary on the most appropriate management measures 

 to be taken, bassd on ths specific facts and 

 circumstanoes of the interaction. 



The Commission believes that the congress should endorse 

 the third option. The status quo would serve only to 

 heighten and inflame the frustration on the West Coast 

 over the apparent inability of the Federal Government to 

 respond to the harms being caused by nuisance animals. 

 Pinniped interaction task f oross are necessary to address 

 these problem interactions because they create a regional 

 forum for consensus-building among diverse interest 

 groups. Many interested parties view oentralized 

 decision-making in Washington, D.C. as too removed and 

 aloof to meaningfully respond to growing tensions in the 

 region. The regional task force approach is a fair 

 compromise between the status quo and oentralized 

 decision-making. The Secretary of Commerce must, of 

 course, be given the legal authority to implement the 

 recommendations of a task force in order for such a 

 process to be meaningful. 



Questions 3 and 4 : Any task force formed should be given 

 the authority to address all types of interactions, 

 provided such interactions are determined to be dangerous 

 or damaging. The scope of the task force should not be 

 limited to addressing problems relating only to salmonid 

 species. The emphasis should instead be on whether the 

 pinniped in question has been identified as a habitual 

 offender. Once the Secretary, in consultation with a 

 task force, determines that non-lethal methods of 

 deterrence are not effective, the Secretary should be 

 authorized to lethally remove habitual offenders to the 

 extent that such interaction is considered dangerous or 

 damaging. Such interactions could include potential 

 zhreats to other species in the marine eoosystem 

 including, but not limited to, salmonid species. 



Any system established should be designed to function 

 smoothly and expeditiously. The procedural requirements 

 should not be so onerous that the task force loses its 

 power to resolve highly contentious issues in a 

 reasonable timeframe. 



Question 5: We are not sure what thi6 question is meant 

 to addresB, but it seems to solicit a response on whether 

 efforts should be made to do a comparative analysis of 

 the marine mammal "harvest" of salmonids and the 

 commercial harvest of salmonids. If conducted, this type 



