SEA LIONS HAVE FISHERMEN URGING POPULATION CONTROL.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Facing a bay overpopulated o·ver·pop·u·late v. o·ver·pop·u·lat·ed, o·ver·pop·u·lat·ing, o·ver·pop·u·lates v.tr. To fill (an area, for example) with excessive population to the detriment of the inhabitants, resources, or environment. with sea lions, area fishermen want the federal government to intervene. The Fishermen's Alliance of Monterey Bay called for population controls and announced it will send a petition to Congress asking for relief. At a news conference Wednesday, the group asked Congress to ``manage the uncontrolled population growth'' of sea lions or return management to individual coastal states The U.S. Coastal states are states in the United States that have a coastline. This can be an ocean coast, a gulf coast, or a Great Lake coast. There are twenty three ocean/gulf of Mexico states, and eight Great Lake states. (New York is both an ocean state and a Great Lake state. . The bad blood between fishermen and sea lions is no secret. Sea lions routinely take hooked fish off the line and several dead sea lions have washed ashore with gunshot wounds in recent years. The California sea lion is protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 prohibits, with certain exceptions, the taking of marine mammals in United States waters and by U.S. citizens on the high seas, and the importation of marine mammals and marine mammal products into the U.S. of 1972, and its numbers are growing due to the fishing of sharks, its natural predator. The population has reached an estimated 161,000 to 181,000 animals on the West Coast, according to Joe Cordaro, wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is a United States federal agency. A division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Commerce, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship and management of the nation's living marine . A 1995 regulation, adopted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, made it illegal for fishermen to shoot sea lions unless they endanger a human life. Before that fishermen could use guns if the animals threatened a catch, nets or other equipment. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Hundreds of sea lions have made Monterey their homesince Memorial Day. Associated Press |
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