1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Prohibiting Threatened and Endangered Creature Trophies Act of 2018 or the ProTECT Act of 2018 . 2. Findings The Congress finds the following: (1) Trophy hunting of imperiled species undermines efforts to conserve wildlife populations because trophy hunters routinely target the biggest, strongest males, and removing those individuals from the population can decrease genetic variation, decrease reproduction, alter social structures, increase infanticide, and cause unnatural evolutionary impacts. (2) When trophy hunting of imperiled species is sanctioned, poaching activity increases, further threatening the survival of wildlife populations. (3) Legal trade in wildlife parts and products can provide cover for markets for illegal trade in wildlife products, which is worth up to $20,000,000,000 annually and run by professional criminal networks linked to other transnational organized criminal activities, including trafficking in narcotics, weapons, and humans. (4) While the Endangered Species Act of 1973 ( 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) currently prohibits the take and import of species listed under that Act as endangered species, it does not automatically extend those protections to species listed as threatened species. 3. Prohibitions regarding taking and importing of endangered species and threatened species trophies (a) Prohibition of taking or importing Section 9 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 ( 16 U.S.C. 1538 ) is amended by adding at the end the following: (h) Trophies It is unlawful for any person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States— (1) to take for a trophy within the United States or the territorial sea of the United States any species of fish or wildlife listed under section 4 as a threatened species