Additional requirements have been placed on foreign 

 nations seeking to import yellowfin tuna into the United 

 States. In order for a foreign tuna/porpoise program to be 

 found comparable to that of the United States, it must include: 

 1) by the beginning of the 1990 fishing season, prohibitions 

 on encircling pure schools of marine mammals, conducting 

 sundown sets, and other activities as are applicable to U.S. 

 vessels; 2) monitoring by observers from the Inter-American 

 Tropical Tuna Commission or an equivalent international program; 

 and 3) observer coverage equal to that for U.S. vessels unless 

 an alternative observer program with lesser coverage is 

 determined to provide sufficiently reliable documentary evidence 

 of the nation's incidental take rate. In addition, the average 

 incidental take rate for a foreign fleet must be no more than 

 twice that of the U.S. fleet during the 1989 season and no 

 more than 1.25 times the U.S. rate during the 1990 and subse- 

 quent seasons. Limitations are also placed on the take of 

 coastal spotted and eastern spinner dolphins. Beginning in 

 1989, eastern spinner dolphins may not account for more than 

 15 percent of the nation's total incidental take and coastal 

 spotted dolphins may not exceed 2 percent of the nation's 

 total take. Harvesting nations will also be required to 

 comply with all reasonable requests from the United States to 

 cooperate in conducting its porpoise stock assessment and 

 monitoring program. 



The amendments also place restrictions on third-party 

 nations seeking to export yellowfin tuna to the United States. 

 An intermediary nation must now certify and provide reasonable 

 proof that it has acted to prohibit the importation of tuna 

 from any country banned from directly exporting tuna to the 

 United States. Intermediary nations have 60 days following 

 the imposition of a U.S. import ban to implement a similar 

 prohibition on tuna imports from the embargoed harvesting 

 nation. Failure by the intermediary nation to adopt a parallel 

 import ban within six months of U.S. action will prompt certi- 

 fication under the Pelly Amendment to the Fishermen's Protective 

 Act and may result in restrictions on imports of all fish 

 products from the intermediary nation. 



In addition, the Secretary is directed to contract with 

 the National Academy of Sciences for an independent review of 

 possible alternative tuna fishing methods that do not involve 

 the incidental take of marine mammals. This review is to be 

 completed by 8 September 1989 and the results submitted to 

 Congress by 5 December 1989, along with the Service's proposed 

 plan for research, development, and implementation of the 

 identified alternatives. 



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