A House Natural Resources subcommittee will hold a hearing this week on legislation aimed at reducing whale conflicts with boats, curtailing predation of salmon by seals, and tamping down on a screwworm outbreak and aquatic invasive species.
H.R. 7332, the Whale CHARTS Act, from Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), would expand an existing pilot mapping and monitoring program for migratory whales. Using “near real-time location monitoring,” the program would aim to better map the movement patterns of migrating whales and monitor their locations to avoid collisions with vessels, a leading cause of their deaths among some species.
H.R. 9621, the Northwest Endangered Salmon Predation Prevention Act, from Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), would ease the killing of seals and sea lions by state officials and Native American tribes to reduce predation of imperiled salmon in the Columbia River watershed.
The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. Emily Randall (D-Wash.), would also set up a program to develop nonlethal technology that could prevent seals and sea lions from entering rivers from the ocean.
