Despite the Commission's recommendations, the Service 

 issued positive determinations of comparability for the programs 

 of all four countries. In a 5 December 1988 letter to the 

 Commission, the Service indicated that the four nations had 

 provided "limited information" on the details of their enforce- 

 ments programs, but the Service had found them to be adequate 

 "since these [foreign] laws or regulations are newly enacted 

 and, as a result, there is no enforcement experience to document 

 at this time." The Service further explained that it will be 

 able to judge the nations' enforcement programs better after 

 the submission of annual reports by the four countries in 

 July 1989. 



Research Activities and Planning 



The 1984 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act 

 directed that the National Marine Fisheries Service undertake 

 a scientific research program to monitor indices of abundance 

 and trends in porpoise populations affected by the yellowfin 

 tuna purse seine fishery in the eastern tropical Pacific 

 Ocean. The research program was to begin on 1 January 1985 

 and continue for at least five years. In response to this 

 directive, the Service, in consultation with the Marine Mammal 

 Commission, the U.S. tuna fishing industry, and the Inter- 

 American Tropical Tuna Commission, convened a series of meetings 

 in 1984 to plan the monitoring program. However, as noted in 

 previous Commission reports, because of funding and logistics 

 constraints, the program was not initiated until July 1986. 



The porpoise monitoring program begun in July 1986 was 

 continued in 1987 and 1988. In 1988, as in 1987, two National 

 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessels, the 

 David Starr Jordan and the MacArthur , conducted porpoise 

 surveys and related oceanographic studies in the eastern 

 tropical Pacific Ocean. The 1988 surveys, which began in 

 July and ended early in December, provided sighting data 

 necessary to determine and detect changes in the distribution, 

 number, size, and composition of porpoise schools in the 

 eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. In addition, a number of 

 porpoise schools were photographed from a helicopter carried 

 aboard the David Starr Jordan . The data obtained provided a 

 basis for calibrating shipboard estimates of porpoise school 

 size and can be used to estimate the relative ages (size) of 

 animals making up the schools. 



In addition to the shipboard surveys, the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service has developed and is using a computer model 

 to evaluate possible methods for using porpoise sighting data 

 collected by observers aboard tuna purse seiners for estimating 

 trends in porpoise abundance. 



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