Chapter HI — Marine Mammal-Fisheries Interactions 



meet the comparability test based upon data for the 

 revised 1991 fishing year. 



The 8 October rule also revised the method used to 

 calculate mortality rates. Previously, the Service 

 weighted data according to three fishing areas and for 

 two species groupings. The weighting process was 

 adopted to treat the various fishing nation more 

 equitably, since incidental take rates vary depending 

 on fishing location and the stock of dolphins set upon. 

 Under the revised approach, the Service will continue 

 to use weighted data when sample sizes for an area 

 and species grouping are sufficient to do so. How- 

 ever, with only two to six U.S. vessels fishing for 

 tuna by setting on dolphins, the statistical variability 

 of the samples would make such comparisons inappro- 

 priate in some circumstances. Under the revised ap- 

 proach, comparability determinations will be based on 

 overall, unweighted mortality rates when there are 

 fewer than five sets by the U.S. fleet in an area and 

 for a species grouping if the foreign nation has any 

 fishing effort for that species grouping in that area. 



As noted above, the 1988 amendments require that, 

 before a foreign program may be found comparable to 

 the U.S. program, the Secretary must determine that 

 its tuna fishing operations are monitored by Inter- 

 American Tropical Tuna Commission observers, or an 

 equivalent international program in which the United 

 States participates, and is based upon observer cover- 

 age that is equal to that for U.S. vessels. Since 

 January 1989, the United States has achieved 100 

 percent observer coverage. Under an exception to the 

 general comparability requirement, however, compa- 

 rable foreign programs may have lesser observer 

 coverage if the Secretary determines that such a 

 program will provide sufficiently reliable documentary 

 evidence of the average rate of incidental taking by 

 the harvesting nation. 



The National Marine Fisheries Service determined 

 that, for 1990, 33 percent coverage would provide 

 sufficiently reliable data for fleets of 10 or more 

 vessels but that 50 percent observer coverage was 

 necessary for fleets consisting of five to nine vessels. 

 Although the Service found these levels to be statisti- 

 cally acceptable, it noted several benefits that would 

 result from higher observer coverage and committed 

 itself to seek 100 percent coverage under the interna- 

 tional observer program. 



The Service sought and obtained agreement at the 

 17-20 September 1990 meeting of the Inter-American 

 Tropical Tuna Commission that observer coverage 

 should be increased to levels approaching 100 percent. 

 Consistent with this international agreement, the 

 Service, on 18 October 1990, proposed to accept 75 

 percent observer coverage for all fleets in 1991 and 

 90 percent coverage for the 1992 and subsequent 

 fishing seasons. 



Observer coverage provided by the Inter-American 

 Tropical Tuna Commission since 1987 for the five 

 major foreign fleets operating in the eastern tropical 

 Pacific are provided in Table 1 1 . With the exception 

 of Mexico, those nations have increased observer 

 coverage substantially over the past five years. As 

 required to guarantee compliance with their prohibi- 

 tions on setting on dolphins, Panama and Ecuador 

 achieved 100 percent observer coverage in 1991. 

 Observer coverage for Vanuatu exceeded 90 percent 

 in 1991. 



Mexico has aimounced that it intends to increase 

 observer coverage of its fleet to 100 percent. Howev- 

 er, only about one-third of the observers on Mexican 

 vessels will be provided by the Inter-American Tropi- 

 cal Tuna Commission. The remainder will be provid- 

 ed by the Government of Mexico under a separate 

 observer program. With the assistance of the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, Mexico began training and 

 certifying its own observers in 1991. While increased 

 observer coverage for Mexico should be encouraged, 

 it is not clear whether the planned program will 

 satisfy the comparability requirements of the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act. As noted above, the Act 

 requires observers to be provided by the Inter-Ameri- 

 can Tropical Tuna Commission or an equivalent 

 international program in which the United States 

 participates. 



Intermediary Nations — The 1988 amendments 

 also restricted tuna imports from third-party nations 

 seeking to export yellowfin tuna to the United States. 

 An intermediary nation must certify and provide 

 reasonable proof that it has acted to prohibit the 

 importation of tuna ft-om any country banned from 

 directly exporting tuna to the United States. Interme- 

 diary 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 



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