California, to obtain the views of the public on issues that 

 should be considered in the environmental impact statement. 

 In addition, the Service established an Interagency Project 

 Review Team, as recommended by the Council on Environmental 

 Quality, to assist in the scoping process and the preparation 

 of the environmental impact statement. The review team included 

 representatives of the California Department of Fish and 

 Game, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Marine Mammal Commis- 

 sion, the Minerals Management Service, and other interested 

 Federal and state agencies. Meetings of the Review Team were 

 open to the public and were attended by representatives of 

 environmental groups, the oil and gas industry, and sport and 

 commercial fishing organizations. 



To further facilitate public input and provide for the 

 development of a thorough and balanced decision-making document, 

 the Service issued two preliminary Draft Environmental Impact 

 Statements to the Interagency Project Review Team and interested 

 parties for review and comment. The first was issued early 

 in 1985 and, based upon the comments received, a revision was 

 prepared and issued in February 1986. 



Questions concerning the legal authority for and other 

 aspects of the Fish and Wildlife Service's translocation 

 proposal were raised and considered during Congressional 

 hearings on reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act in 

 the spring of 1985. In response, specific sea otter translo- 

 cation provisions were included in H.R. 1027, the House of 

 Representatives proposed legislation to reauthorize the 

 Endangered Species Act. Other issues concerning reauthori- 

 zation of the Act, however, could not be resolved and H.R. 

 1027 was not passed. Instead, at the end of 1985, Congress 

 enacted legislation to provide for continuing appropriations 

 to the Department of the Interior and other agencies responsible 

 for implementing the Act. As part of this legislation, Congress 

 required that the Fish and Wildlife Service move forward with 

 its decision-making on the proposed sea otter translocation, 

 notwithstanding the fact that the Endangered Species Act had 

 not been reauthorized. 



Complying with the Congressional directive, the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement 

 on 31 July 1986. This document identified translocation of 

 sea otters to San Nicolas Island in the California Channel 

 Islands as the preferred action. On 15 August 1986, the Service 

 published proposed experimental population regulations in the 

 Federal Register . 



Still seeing a need to clarify the authority for the 

 translocation, in October 1986, the House Committee on Merchant 

 Marine and Fisheries incorporated the sea otter translocation 

 amendment from the unpassed Endangered Species Act reauthori- 



42 



