Twiss, John R., Jr., executive director, Marine Mammal Commission.... Wildlife Legislative Fund of America Williamson, Lonnie L., secretary, Wildlife Management Institute. Wray, Phoebe, executive director, Center for Action on Endangered Spe- Young, Hon. Don, a Representative in Congress from the State of Alaska, before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Status of embargoes on tuna and tuna products, February 18, 1981 Condon, Wilson L.: Memorandum of January 21, 1981, to Ronald O. 20 Lipscomb, Fran: Letter of April 16, 1981, to Hon. John Breaux. Shavings, Edward, Sr., et al: Letter to Representative Don Young Skoog, Ronald O.: Letter of April 23, 1981, to Hon. John Breaux. Barry, Donald J., Assistant Solicitor, Fish and Wildlife, Department of Bean, Michael, Chairman, Wildlife Program, Environmental Defense 293 213, 237 Prepared statement. 216 Bowles, Larry G., Manager, Government Affairs, Geo-Physical Service, Inc., on behalf of the National Ocean Industries Association Boynton, Stephen S., Washington Counsel, the Wildlife Legislative Fund 81-603720 Kaufmann, Milton M., director, the Fund for Animals, Inc........ Lenzini, Paul A., legal counsel, International Association of Fish and Roe, Dick, Acting Director, Office of Marine Mammals and Endangered Species, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, Department of Sloan, Lucy, executive director, National Federation of Fishermen.. Tiepleman, Dennis, Washington representative, Alaska Federation of Na- Communication submitted: Risk, Jane: Letter of July 14, 1981, to Hon. John Breaux......... 320 MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT AUTHORIZATION TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1981 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT, COMMITTEE ON MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES, Washington, D.C. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m., in room 1334 Longworth House Office Building, Hon. John B. Breaux, (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Breaux, Bonker, Oberstar, Hughes, Lowry, Tauzin, Patman, Sunia, Hertel, Forsythe, Pritchard, Young, Emery, and Shumway. Staff present: G. Wayne Smith, Jeff Curtis, George Mannina, Barbara Wyman, and Geraldine Fitzgerald. Mr. BREAUX. The subcommittee will be in order. The hearing today is on the Marine Mammal Protection Act, a law that was originally passed in 1972 to provide a special level of protection for mammals that live in the marine environmentanimals such as whales, porpoises, seals, walruses, polar bears, and manatees. I sincerely hope that this hearing is the first step in a process that will result in correcting a number of deficiencies that exist in the act. While the intent of the act is noble, it is my opinion that a number of the provisions of the act simply do not work as they should. A prime example of a provision of the act which needs to be addressed is the section which allows for the waiver of the moratorium on the taking of marine mammals and the return of management to the State where the animals are found. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service tried to return management of a healthy population of walrus to the State of Alaska, but the State found it could not accept management because of a preference in the law for Alaskan Natives which violated the State Constitution. The net effect of the failure to return management is that virtually no manpower or funds are being allocated by the State or the Federal Government and the harvest of walrus is essentially unregulated. In addition, a number of problems seem to exist in the provisions of the act which deal with the incidental take of porpoise in tuna fishing operations. A major goal of the act has been accomplished in that the number of porpoises killed has dropped dramatically, but there has been an excessive amount of litigation. We need to provide more certainty to the act, and it is my opinion that we will have to amend the act to accomplish this. (1) Congressman Forsythe and I have introduced legislation that would extend the authorization of this act for year. Quite frankly, we did this to encourage all those concerned to promote a reasonable, comprehensive solution to the problems in the current law. We do not believe that this can be accomplished before the May 15 deadline for authorizations to be reported out of committee. However, we do plan to work throughout the summer and fall to develop an amendment package with a longer authorization that we can pass before the end of this session. The purpose of the hearing today is to discuss the authorization levels and to begin discussion on the problems in the act. We have a lot of witnesses to hear today, so I hope that all of them will recall that additional hearings will be held in the summer when we will go into the workings of the act in more detail and make their remarks as brief as possible. I would add, in addition to the prepared remarks, that this member is thoroughly committed to coming up with a complete and total review of the problems that the act is experiencing. As my statement indicated clearly, we simply do not have that time with getting all the authorization bills out by May 15. I know that nearly everyone who is affected and has an interest in the Marine Mammal Act have been working together in trying to come up with a recommended solution to many of the problems that are perceived at the present time. I think these groups need additional time for discussion, and we are going to try to give them that, by proposing a 1-year authorization with an absolute commitment to have additional hearings in the summer, June or July, perhaps, and try to get a longer authorization bill reported which would address all of the problems that everyone recognizes. With that, do we have any other opening comments? Mr. FORSYTHE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to reemphasize what you have stated, I believe it would be impossible to try to resolve the issues that will be discussed today between now and May 15, and I join you and your commitment to hold oversight hearings this summer, and to have legislation hopefully on the floor before we leave this fall. I hope the witnesses will concentrate on the authorization matters today, but with the understanding that we will certainly be very interested to hear other matters later on this year. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [The bill and departmental views follow:] [H.R. 2948, 97th Congress, 2d session] A BILL To authorize appropriations to carry out the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 during fiscal year 1982 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.) is amended (1) by striking out "and September 30, 1981" in each of paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 109(d) and inserting in lieu thereof "September 30, 1981, and September 30, 1982"; (2) by striking out "for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1981" in each of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of section 110(c)(6) and inserting in lieu thereof "for each of the fiscal years ending September 30, 1981, and September 30, 1982"; |