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portion of a vessel's catch of tuna obtained from unlawful 

 sets on prohibited stocks or species. No action had been 

 taken by the full court by the end of 1983. 



Throughout 1983, the Commission joined with 

 representatives of the National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 the tuna industry, environmental organizations, and 

 others in an attempt to reach agreement on a voluntary 

 observer program which would, with the consent of the 

 tuna fishermen, provide for placement of observers to 

 gather data for scientific purposes and for enforcement 

 on a vessel-by-vessel basis of quotas, prohibition 

 against setting on depleted species, and certain other 

 porpoise protection regulations. These efforts were 

 unsuccessful. Observers were placed aboard U.S. fishing 

 vessels during 1983 pursuant to a voluntary Inter-American 

 Tropical Tuna Commission program to monitor kill levels, 

 but vessel-by-vessel information on porpoise kill and 

 compliance with the regulations is not available from 

 that program. 



Research Planning and Coordination 



As noted in the Annual Report for Calendar Year 1982, 

 Commission representatives met that year with the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service to review plans for scientific 

 activities preparatory to establishment of tuna-porpoise 

 regulations to replace present regulations which will 

 expire in 1985. While no major population survey is to 

 be undertaken to update the assessment of the status of 

 the porpoise stocks impacted by the yellowfin tuna purse 

 seine fishery, the Service has carried out several aerial 

 experiments, as well as a number of shipboard surveys, 

 to resolve problems with earlier analyses. The latest of 

 those made in 1983 was designed to determine if porpoise 

 respond to research vessels before being detected by 

 observers on the vessels. The Commission contributed 

 both to the design of the experiment and to the analysis of 

 its results. 



The new data from specially designed experiments 

 and from shipboard research cruises permits a 

 reanalysis of the earlier data to better evaluate the 

 status of the porpoise stocks. The analyses, which are 

 being carried out by the National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 are being reviewed by four panels, each meeting on one or 

 more occasions. The panels include experts from the 

 academic and industrial sectors as well as representatives 

 of the Service. The Marine Mammal Commission is 

 participating fully in the work of these panels and will 



