U.S. Representative Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) applauded President Trump’s decision in June to withdraw from the 2023 Columbia Basin salmon agreement, which called for the breaching of the four Lower Snake River dams. Baumgartner called the agreement “an act of extreme environmentalism by the last Administration.”
The Congressman added, “Protecting salmon is vital, but breaching the Lower Snake River dams is not the solution.”
On Wednesday, at an oversight hearing with the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, Baumgartner addressed how the federal government is protecting sea lions at the expense of salmon, which are under existential threat from a thriving population of predator sea lions in the Columbia River.
Baumgartner proposed “killing more sea lions to protect more salmon.” (An average sea lion can eat up to 35 lbs. of fish a day.)
Baumgartner urged the Committee to provide “the tools” to kill sea lions in his district, knowing that sea lions are currently protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), which prohibits the take of marine mammals and provides limited ability to manage seal and sea lion populations. (“Take” means “harass, hunt, capture, or kill.”)
The bill was signed into law in 1972 by President Richard Nixon. Since then, according to Baumgartner, the sea lion population has grown from 100,000 to 300,000 on the West Coast.
We have too damn many sea lions eating too many salmon at the mouth of the Columbia River.
Taxpayers in Washington state are tired of spending so much money to protect salmon when a simple part of the solution is staring us in the face – shoot, trap and kill sea lions to reduce… pic.twitter.com/cdc9mWFqUk
— Congressman Michael Baumgartner (@RepBaumgartner) December 4, 2025
Baumgartner wrote: “We have too damn many sea lions eating too many salmon at the mouth of the Columbia River. Taxpayers in Washington state are tired of spending so much money to protect salmon when a simple part of the solution is staring us in the face – shoot, trap and kill sea lions to reduce their number to the historically appropriate level. Stop letting environmental extremists and layers of bureaucracy get in the way of common sense.”
[Note: The U.S Geological Survey, part of the Department of the Interior, supports Baumgartner’s salmon assessment, saying “Sockeye salmon from the Snake River system are probably the most endangered salmon. Coho salmon in the lower Columbia River may already be extinct.”]
Baumgartner added: “I think one of the reasons why people get so frustrated with government is that everybody knows that the sea lions are a problem, there’s too many of them, and they need to be removed and reduced in population.”
He added, “We have to give folks the tools to reduce these populations.”