dead animals floating at sea and washed up on beaches in 

 selected index areas. 



Preliminary results suggest that only the nearshore 

 population was affected and that the impact was substantial. 

 Perhaps 50 percent or more of the population died, and at 

 least some of the survivors were severely debilitated and 

 therefore unlikely to breed. On 11 November 1988, the Center 

 for Environmental Education (now the Center for Marine 

 Conservation) petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 to begin informal rulemaking to list the mid-Atlantic coastal 

 stock of bottlenose dolphins as depleted under the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act. As noted, information compiled by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service suggests that this proposal 

 has merit. Consequently, early in 1989, the Service is expected 

 to take steps to list the nearshore population of bottlenose 

 dolphins along the U.S. Atlantic coast as depleted under the 

 Marine Mammal Protection Act. 



Follow-on Activities 



The cause or biological significance of the 1987-1988 

 die-off had not been determined by mid-1988 when reauthorization 

 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act was being considered (see 

 Chapter II of this Report) . Therefore, in the amendments to 

 the Act, signed into law on 23 November 1988, Congress directed 

 that the National Marine Fisheries Service conduct a study to 

 examine: (1) the cause or causes of the epidemic; (2) the 

 effect of the epidemic on coastal and offshore populations of 

 Atlantic bottlenose dolphin; (3) the extent to which pollution 

 may have contributed to the epidemic; (4) whether other species 

 and populations of marine mammals were affected by those factors 

 which contributed to the epidemic; and (5) any other matters 

 pertaining to the causes and effects of the epidemic. 



The amendments require that the Service submit a plan 

 for conducting the study to the Senate Committee on Commerce, 

 Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Merchant 

 Marine and Fisheries by 1 January 1989. However, the final 

 report of the die-off investigation is not expected to be 

 completed and submitted to the Service and the Commission 

 until the end of January 1989. Therefore, by letter of 

 6 December 1988, the Commission suggested that the Service 

 advise the concerned Congressional Committees of this fact when 

 submitting its required study plan. The Commission also pointed 

 out that, while the forthcoming report was expected to identify 

 the likely cause of the die-off, it would not provide an 

 assessment of the impact of the die-off on the affected 

 population or populations or indicate the follow-up studies 

 necessary to determine how soon the populations may recover. 

 The Commission therefore suggested that the Service include 



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