it would be preferable to capture and transport the excess 

 animals to another location within the species' historic range 

 rather than killing them. 



The Marine Mammal Commission, in consultation with its 

 Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals, has devoted 

 considerable attention and funding to efforts to identify, 

 assess, and resolve problems caused by marine mammal/ fishery 

 interactions. Activities prior to 1987 have been reported in 

 previous Annual Reports. A brief summary of these earlier 

 efforts and a description of activities in 1987 follow. 



Background 



Before passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 

 1972, regulated and unregulated hunting, bounty programs, and 

 various forms of harassment were used in a number of areas to 

 eliminate or reduce marine mammal populations and thus eliminate 

 or reduce damage and loss of gear and catch being caused, or 

 thought to be caused, by marine mammals. Consequently, marine 

 mammal populations were reduced to and held at very low levels 

 in some areas. The Act imposed a moratorium on such taking 

 and, in the ensuing years, marine mammals have become more 

 abundant in some areas and/or less likely to avoid fishing 

 boats and gear. 



By the mid-1970s, there were reports of increasing inter- 

 actions between marine mammals and fisheries, particularly in 

 the Pacific Northwest. In response to these reports, the 

 Commission, in December 1977, convened a workshop to gather 

 and review available information on the nature, extent, and 

 impact of interactions between fisheries and marine mammal 

 populations in Oregon, Washington, California, Alaska, and 

 Hawaii. The workshop concluded that the most acute problems 

 seemed to involve seals, sea lions, and the salmon gill net 

 fisheries in the Copper River Delta area of Alaska and the 

 Columbia River in Washington and Oregon (for more information, 

 see Mate, 1980, Appendix B) . In response to the workshop 

 findings, the Commission, among other things, provided funds 

 to initiate assessment of the interactions problem in the 

 Copper River Delta (see Matkin and Fay, 1980, Appendix B) and 

 to begin development of a plan to assess and determine how to 

 resolve the interactions problems in the Columbia River and 

 adjacent areas. 



As noted in previous Commission reports, additional studies 

 subsequently were initiated by the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and 

 the States of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California. 

 These studies were intended to better determine the nature 

 and extent of certain interactions in the Bering Sea, in waters 



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