Interesting thing about the ESA is that it seems to work very well to recover some species, while other species continue to trend (albeit at a slower pace) toward extinction. Seals and ESA-listed salmon demonstrate both extremes. Both share similar habitats (in the salt, anyway) and depend on similar food sources, so why has one been so much more successful at recovery? I'm sure the whole story's nowhere near this simple, but I think the fact that we don't have a commercial market for seals might be a good place to start looking for answers.

I guess I'm naive, but I can't help wondering if salmon would be in better shape if we quit killing over half of them every year in the ocean. Hey - not killing them sure worked for the seals....