Salmon Fisheries Cooperative Association to incidentally take 

 up to 5,500 Dall's porpoise, 450 northern fur seals, and 25 

 northern sea lions per year was issued by the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service in 1981 for the 1981-1983 fishing seasons. 

 Through the 1982 amendments to the North Pacific Fisheries 

 Act, the general permit was extended until 9 June 1987. 



Under the North Pacific Fisheries Act, Japan was required 

 to introduce new gear or fishing techniques into its entire 

 salmon drift gill net fleet by the 1987 fishing season. The 

 National Marine Fisheries Service has authority under the Act 

 to determine what types of fishing gear or techniques offer 

 the most practical and effective opportunity for reducing 

 porpoise mortality and to specify which of those must be 

 adopted by the Japanese fleet. In 1987, two types of nets 

 were used. Twenty-one percent of the fleet used nets with 

 three strands of multi-filament material along the midline of 

 the net. The remainder of the fleet used nets with three 

 strands of hollow tube material along the midline. It was 

 hoped that these gear modifications would make it easier for 

 porpoise to detect and avoid gill nets through echolocation. 

 Preliminary reports suggest that there were no significant 

 differences in the incidental catch of porpoise in the two 

 net types. 



Estimates based on U.S. observer coverage of the Japanese 

 fishing operations indicate that, except through the reduction 

 of fishing effort, there had been no progress in reducing the 

 total level of Dall's porpoise mortality since the permit was 

 issued. Making note of this trend, the Administrative Law 

 Judge presiding over proceedings for the 1987 permit application 

 concluded that the Federation had been without success in 

 reducing the incidental take rate. Estimates for incidental 

 take in each fishing season under the permit, including the 

 1987 season, are as follows: 



Estimated Incidental Take of Dall's Porpoise 



by the Japanese Salmon Drift Net Fishery 



in the U.S. Fishery Conservation Zone 



in the North Pacific Ocean 



Year Estimated Take 



1981 1,850 



1982 4,187 

 1982 2,906 



1984 2,443 



1985 2,760 



1986 1,456 



1987 741 



The low level of take in 1987 reflects, in large part, a sub- 

 stantial reduction in fishing effort. The take rate in the 



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