Marine mammals are in serious trouble. Fish populations are so gravely depleted that Pacific grey whales have been seen migrating north with such severe starvation that their ribs are showing. Seal species around the world are being devastated by climate change.

What’s the response of the Republican Party? Aim lower.

Last year, Alaska Republican Congressman Don Young introduced H.R. 1007, a bill to amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1992. Young’s legislation would remove the official goal of zero deaths of marine mammals as a result of fishing. If passed, the law would also make economic convenience a legally acceptable justification for the killing of marine mammals in the process of commercial fishing.

Young’s legislation contains the following bizarre excuse for legalizing the slaughter of marine mammals: “Species and populations stocks of marine mammal that have reached historic levels are impeding the recovery of endangered species and threatened species through predation or competition in the ecosystem.”

Think about this for a second: Which marine mammals that have reached historic levels are threatening to cause the extinction of other species? Are sea lions eating too many salmon, for instance?

If a marine mammal is at a population level that is truly in line with its historically sustainable levels, then it can’t be to blame for the endangered status of their prey or competing species. After all, historically, those species fit together just fine, ecologically speaking. No marine mammal species, historically speaking, drove any other existing marine animal to the brink of extinction…

…unless you count human beings taking to the sea in their boats as a marine mammal. It’s human activity that has upset the ecological balance of the oceans, not wild marine mammals.

In the case of sea lions and salmon, for instance, it’s human beings who have driven salmon populations to the brink, through pollution, dams, and overfishing. Yes, sea lions who find the oceans stripped nearly clean of fish are desperate to eat as many salmon as they can, but it’s not the sea lions who are to blame for the problem.

Luckily, Don Young’s legislation isn’t faring much better than marine mammals themselves. It’s been over a year now since Young introduced his bill, and in all that time, he hasn’t managed to convince even one other member of the House of Representatives to sign on to H.R.1007 as a cosponsor. The legislation is stuck in committee, and that’s where it should remain, forgotten and left to die.