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[Longview Daily News, Tacoma, WA, July 12, 1993] 



Groups Agree That Laws Protecting Seals Need To Be Changed 



Tacoma — Fishing and conservation groups agree a federal law to protect seals 

 and other marine mammals needs changes to protect other ocean resources. 



The qruestion in congressional hearings that start this week is how much the 

 mammals will have to sufTer. 



The 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act made it a crime to harm seals and their 

 aquatic kin such as sea lions and otters. The result has been exploding populations 

 of those animals, which feed on salmon and other species. 



An estimated 2,000 seals and sea lions now swim up the Columbia River each 

 year, taking a growing bite out of salmon and steelhead runs and angering local 

 gillnetters and others. 



'The act has been extremely successful," said Terry Wright of the Northwest In- 

 dian Fisheries Commission. "The problem is, it's been too successful." 



In the congressional hearings, fishing and conservation groups will argue for 

 changes in the act before it is reauthorized this year. 



Many fishermen hope the act will be reworked to make it easier to "manage" ma- 

 rine mammals through hunting or selective killing of net-raiding animals. 



"I liken it to wild horses and burros * * * or elk herds," said Guy Thomburgh, 

 executive director of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. "At some point 

 the government has to have greater flexibility to deal with these robust populations 

 of animals." 



Most conservationists agree the law should allow killing of nuisance animals. But 

 they're waiy of giving fishermen a license to kill or of blaming marine mammals 

 for the decline of Northwest salmon runs. 



"It is outrageous and simplistic to say that because these animals eat fish and 

 because humans want these fish that shooting these animals is going to be a way 

 to resolve the fisheries problem," said Peigin Barrett, director of the Marine Mam- 

 mal Center in San Francisco. 



Anacories fisherman Ed Knudson disagreed. He estimated he loses up to 20 per- 

 cent of his catch to seals. 



'It's definitely getting worse every year, because nothing is done about it," he 

 said. 



The population of harbor seals, Washington's most abundant marine mammal, is 

 growing by 6 percent to 10 percent a year, according to the National Marine Fish- 

 eries Service. Biologists estimate more than 30,000 harbor seals now live year-round 

 in the state, compared with only about 2,000 in 1972. 



There are an estimated 10,000 seals and sea lions from the central Oregon Coast 

 to Grays Harbor. Gillnetters report seeing the mammals farther upriver than ever 

 before. In March, hundreds of seals took over a tiny sand bar at the mouth of the 

 Cowlitz River and rested between raids on fish runs. 



'The supreme irony would be protecting seals and sea lions that don't really need 

 protection, while they're feeding ravenously on endangered salmon," said Bob Eaton 

 of Salmon for All, an Oregon fishing organization. 



Senator Stevens. Is the threat different to the marine mammals 

 now than it was when we passed the original bill? First, we had 

 a marine mammal moratorium and then put into effect a marine 

 mammal act. Is the threat different? 



Dr. HoFMAN. Dr. Foster just looked at me and suggested that I 

 answer this question. 



Dr. Foster. He has been around longer. 



Senator Stevens. But not as long as I have, and it does seem 

 to me that it has changed. But I just would like to have your opin- 

 ion. [Laughter.] 



Dr. HoFMAN. When the Marine Mammal Protection Act was 

 passed, I think the record indicates that there were three major 

 problems: commercial whaling, the clubbing of baby harp seals, and 

 the incidental take or directed take of porpoise in the yellowfin 

 tuna purse seine fishery. I think those were the three principal 

 things that led to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. 



