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and transmittal of its recommendation to the Department; 

 and 3) final processing by the Department, including 

 consideration of all comments and recommendations of the 

 Commission and the public, resulting in the approval or 

 denial of the application. The total review time (initial 

 receipt of application until final Departmental action) 

 depends on many factors, including: the sufficiency of the 

 information provided by the applicant; special actions, 

 such as inspecting an applicant's marine mammal holding 

 facilities, that may be warranted before a decision can be 

 reached; and the efficiency and thoroughness of those 

 responsible for the review. 



During 1983, the Commission made recommendations on 40 

 applications submitted to the Department of Commerce 

 (including five applications which were received in 1982 

 but did not receive final action until 1983) and five 

 applications submitted to the Department of the Interior. 

 The Commission's average review time for complete applications 

 was 36 days (median, 30 days) . Not included in the preceding 

 statistics are recommendations on four applications which 

 were awaiting final action by the Department of Commerce, 

 one application awaiting final action by the Department of 

 the Interior, and two applications which were under 

 Commission review at year's end. The Commission, in 

 consultation with its Committee of Scientific Advisors, also 

 made recommendations on 18 requests to modify permits during 

 1983. The average time required for Commission review of 

 these matters was 41 days. 



For the 4 applications processed by the Department of 

 Commerce during 1983, it took an average of 91 days (median, 

 78 days) from the date the application was received by the 

 Department until final action was taken. The five permit 

 applications submitted to the Department of the Interior 

 were processed in an average of 83 days (median, 84 days) . 

 If calculated from the date of receipt of a complete 

 application by the Services, the average processing times 

 for the Departments of Commerce and the Interior were 80 and 

 53 days, respectively, compared to 74 and 75 days, 

 respectively, in 1982. 



