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 inspection of an 

 applicant's marine mammal holding facilities, that may be 

 warranted before a decision can be reached; and the effi- 

 ciency and thoroughness of those responsible for the agency 

 review. 



During 1986, the Commission made recommendations on 40 

 applications submitted to the Department of Commerce, in- 

 cluding three applications that were received in 1985 but 

 which did not receive final action until 1986, and 17 

 applications to the Department of the Interior, including 

 one application that was received in 1985 but which did not 

 receive final action until 1986. The Commission's average 

 review time for complete applications was 37 days (median, 

 34 days) . Not included in the preceding statistics are 

 recommendations on three applications that were awaiting 

 final action by the Department of Commerce at year's end 

 and three applications that were under Commission review at 

 year's end. Also not included are nine applications (seven 

 from the Department of Commerce and two from the Department 

 of the Interior) on which review was suspended at year's 

 end pending receipt of additional information. The Com- 

 mission, in consultation with its Committee of Scientific 

 Advisors, also made recommendations on 28 requests to 

 modify permits and other related permit actions during 

 1986. The average time required for Commission review of 

 these matters was 20 days. 



For the 40 applications processed by the Department of 

 Commerce during 1986, it took an average of 117 days 

 (median, 92 days) from the date the application was re- 

 ceived by the Department until final action was taken. The 

 17 permit applications submitted to the Department of the 

 Interior were processed in an average of 90 days (median, 

 92 days) . If calculated from the date of receipt of a 

 complete application by the Departments, the average pro- 

 cessing times for the Departments of Commerce and the 

 Interior were 92 and 65 days, respectively, compared to 89 

 and 99 days, respectively, in 1985. 



Administration of the Permit Process 



In certain geographic areas there is growing demand 

 for permits to take animals from a single stock. This is 

 the case, for example, with respect to bottlenose dolphins 

 off the southwest coast of Florida where public display 

 collectors and researchers conduct activities in the same 

 area. In the past, the Commission has recommended that the 

 cumulative effects of these takes be monitored so as to 

 ensure that the affected stocks would not be adversely 



145 



