U.S. fleet that supports the complicated and financially 

 burdensome regulatory process instituted by the draft proposed 

 rules . " The tuna industry representative presented an alter- 

 native to the regulation of operator performance, proposing 

 that the existing Expert Skippers Panel be used to address 

 the problems of disaster sets and under-performing skippers. 

 The Service asked the American Tunaboat Association to prepare 

 a more detailed proposal for distribution to interested parties. 



The Commission, by letter of 8 April 1987, expressed its 

 desire to work with the Service, the environmental community, 

 and the tuna industry, in developing an effective performance 

 review program. In that letter, the Commission took issue 

 with the finding of the Living Marine Resources report and 

 the statement made by the American Tunaboat Association in 

 its 6 February letter that "problem performance. . .cannot be 

 predicted with any degree of certainty." The Commission 

 recommended that additional data be analyzed and noted that, 

 "[a]lthough additional review is necessary, it appears to us 

 . . . that there is a pattern of predictability between problem 

 sets and skipper performance . " 



Also on 8 April, the American Tunaboat Association sub- 

 mitted its proposal, setting forth the criteria and procedures 

 that it believes should be used to evaluate the porpoise 

 mortality performance of vessel operators. Under the proposal, 

 the Expert Skippers Panel would review the circumstances 

 surrounding the trip in which a disaster set occurred, would 

 consider other relevant factors such as the operator's ex- 

 perience, and would work with the operator to improve perfor- 

 mance. If performance problems recur, the Service could 

 sanction the operator by suspending his Certificate of 

 Inclusion. The Service, by letter of 20 May, indicated that 

 the proposal was a good beginning toward resolving how it 

 might use the recommendations of the American Tunaboat Assoc- 

 iation and the Expert Skippers Panel in addressing problem 

 performance. In its letter, the Service posed several guest ions 

 to the American Tunaboat Association in an effort to clarify 

 various aspects of the proposal. No further action had been 

 taken by the end of 1987. 



Foreign Nation Compliance Programs 



During the 1984 reauthorization hearings on the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act, concern was expressed by the Commission, 

 the National Marine Fisheries Service, the tuna industry, and 

 the environmental community that progress realized by the 

 U.S. fleet in reducing incidental porpoise mortality was 

 being offset by the high kill rates of foreign fleets. It 

 was believed that, if further progress were to be made in 

 achieving the Act's goal of reducing incidental mortality to 

 insignificant levels approaching zero, foreign fleets would 



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