made applicable to U.S. tuna fishermen. Although no stock- 

 specific numerical quotas were imposed on foreign nations 

 that export tuna to the United States, the amendments require 

 that no more than 15 percent of their total annual mortality 

 be eastern spinner dolphins and no more than 2 percent be 

 coastal spotted dolphins. To be found comparable to the U.S. 

 program, the incidental take by a foreign nation must be 

 monitored by the observer program of the Inter-American Tropical 

 Tuna Commission or an equivalent international program in 

 which the United States participates. In addition, observer 

 coverage for the foreign fleet must be equal to that achieved 

 for the U.S. fleet unless the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 determines that an alternative observer program will provide 

 sufficiently reliable documentary evidence of the nation's 

 incidental take rate. 



The amendments also imposed restrictions on tuna imports 

 from intermediary nations. Before it can import tuna into 

 the United States, each such nation must now provide reason- 

 able proof that it has acted to prohibit the importation of 

 tuna from any nation prohibited from directly importing tuna 

 into the United States. In addition, any fishing or inter- 

 mediary nation that has been banned from importing tuna into 

 the United States for a six-month period must be certified 

 under the Pelly Amendment to the Fishermen's Protective Act. 

 Pelly Amendment certification may result in the imposition of 

 a ban on the importation of all fish products from the offending 

 nation. 



Under the terms of the 18 March 1988 interim final rule, 

 all findings of comparability for tuna fishing nations then 

 in effect expired on 15 October 1988 unless, by 17 August 

 1988, the nation filed a substantially complete application 

 for a new finding under the new regulations. Only Mexico 

 filed such an application by the deadline and beginning on 15 

 October, the importation into the United States of yellowfin 

 tuna from all other nations was prohibited. Shortly before 

 the import ban was to go into effect, four nations (Ecuador, 

 Vanuatu, Panama, and Venezuela) filed applications seeking 

 findings of comparability. By letters of 8 and 9 November 1988, 

 the Commission provided the Service with comments on the 

 applications submitted by Vanuatu and Ecuador. The Commission 

 expressed its view that neither country had provided the 

 detailed description of its enforcement program required by 

 the Service's interim final regulations and recommended that 

 the Service defer issuing findings of comparability until 

 such detailed descriptions had been provided. In a 16 November 

 letter, the Commission provided similar recommendations for 

 Venezuela and Panama, which, in the Commission's opinion, had 

 also not sufficiently described their enforcement programs. 



156 



