So what, because they didn't come to the meeting with "kill one pinniped, get outta jail free" tickets, at the first public meeting, they are already failing?

Jezus, some of these pinnipeds (stellars) were just removed from the ESA themselves. So, straight from recovery to the shotgun....that's what your plan is...Good luck with that!

Or, do you just like making unreasonable assumptions about what can and should be done, and then when it doesn't go that way, you just point and call out "Failure!"?