This bill modifies the Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow targeted lethal removal of seals and sea lions in the Columbia River region and Washington state waters to protect endangered and threatened salmon species. The bill expands existing authorities in two main ways: it broadens the geographic area and types of pinnipeds that can be removed in the Columbia River and its tributaries, and it creates a new permit program allowing Washington state and federally recognized Indian tribes with treaty fishing rights to lethally remove seals and sea lions in Washington's rivers and coastal waters. The bill requires the Secretary of Commerce to issue annual reports to Congress documenting pinniped populations and their impact on fish recovery, with the authority to suspend the lethal removal program after five years if it determines the removals are no longer necessary. The legislation also establishes a Columbia River Pinniped Exclusion Technology Accelerator program to develop non-lethal barriers that prevent seals and sea lions from moving upstream while allowing salmon migration and commercial navigation. The bill directs the National Marine Fisheries Service to conduct a ten-year study on whether the lethal removal actions help recover endangered salmon species, with results reported to Congress.
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