PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The federal agency that manages fisheries says it can fix problems a federal appeals court has identified with a state program to kill sea lions feeding on salmon at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.
What that fix will be remains uncertain, however.
NOAA Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman said Wednesday the agency will not fight the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last November.
The Humane Society of the United States filed the lawsuit to stop the federally authorized state program that has killed 27 California sea lions over the past two years.
The court said NOAA Fisheries had failed to show how it could let fishermen kill some endangered salmon, when it would not let sea lions eat a smaller number of fish.
