The sea lions in Congress's salmon bill breed in Southeast Alaska

A House subcommittee took up a bill Tuesday that would expand federal authority to conduct lethal removals of sea lions preying on salmon in the Columbia River and Washington waters. The Steller sea lions involved are partly Alaska's animals: they belong to the eastern stock, which breeds on rookeries running from Southeast Alaska through British Columbia to California.

That stock has recovered. Roughly 31,000 animals strong, it came off the endangered species list in 2013 after growing about 4 percent a year for three decades. Supporters of the bill treat that as the point — a recovered, expanding population preying on listed salmon runs should be managed the way other recovered wildlife is managed.

They also point to results. "Prior to lethal removal, listed winter steelhead faced an 89% risk of extinction," said Nate Pamplin of Washington's fish and wildlife department. "After 2 years of targeted removals, the risk of extinction fell to 11%."

The bill builds on a 2018 law that first allowed Columbia River removals. It would lift the geographic limit at river mile 112, drop the requirement that animals be euthanized chemically, and let Washington and covered tribes carry out removals. Takes would be capped at 10 percent of potential biological removal, the federal calculation of how many animals a stock can lose and stay healthy.

Not everyone is persuaded it works. "I'm concerned that this well-intentioned act will really do little to recover West Coast salmon," said Richard Merrick, testifying for the minority. Rep. Val Hoyle of Oregon objected that her state's tribes were left out of the bill's development.

One Alaska wrinkle sits underneath the science. Federal researchers have documented a mixing zone in northern Southeast Alaska, where new rookeries were founded partly by females from the still-endangered western population — a complication for a framework built on treating the two stocks as separate.