Chapter 11 — Species of Special Concern 



harvest of North Pacific fur seals violated the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act and applicable regulations; 

 (2) adequate numbers of seals had been taken to 

 satisfy Native subsistence needs; and (3) seals already 

 harvested had been taken in a wasteful manner. 



During consideration of the Humane Society's 

 motion for a temporary restraining order, the Court 

 requested that the Service suspend further seal har- 

 vesting, pending a ruling on the motion. After 

 holding two hearings on the matter and reviewing 

 briefs submitted by the parties, the court denied the 

 Humane Society's motion on 2 August 1991. In a 

 written order issued on 5 August 1991 the Court 

 explained the basis for its ruling as follows: (1) the 

 Humane Society did not demonstrate that an authori- 

 zation to continue the harvest violates the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act; (2) the Humane Society did 

 not demonstrate that the harvest had been conducted 

 in a wasteful manner, while the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service did demonstrate that it had consid- 

 ered wastefulness or potential wastefulness as a factor 

 in allocating harvest limits; (3) the Humane Society 

 did not sufficiently demonstrate that it would be 

 "irreparably injured" if the injunction was denied; and 

 (4) the Court believed that the injunction, if enforced, 

 would substantially harm the Pribilof Islands' Aleut 

 population by impairing their ability to harvest food 

 resources for the coming year. 



After the St. Paul Island harvest was resumed, 500 

 additional seals were taken, resulting in a total 1991 

 subsistence take of 1,645 seals. St. George Islanders 

 harvested an additional 100 seals after the harvest was 

 resumed, for a total take of 281 seals. 



In its 1 August 1991 Federal Register notice 

 estimating harvest levels and in a 26 August 1991 

 notice summarizing the 1991 harvest, the Service 

 announced its intention to review and re-evaluate the 

 methods used to determine subsistence needs and to 

 measure waste as they apply to the subsistence harvest 

 of fur seals on the Pribilof Islands. Towards this end, 

 on 5 November 1991 the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service held a working session, which included 

 participation by Federal and state agencies, Pribilo- 

 vians, other Alaska Native groups, and environmental 

 and animal welfare groups. 



The purpose of the working session was to gather 

 information and recommendations to assist the Service 

 in determining or implementing changes to the regime 

 for managing the Native subsistence fur seal harvest 

 on the Pribilof Islands. The participants considered, 

 among other things: (1) the legal and regulatory basis 

 for managing the harvest; (2) the need for a subsis- 

 tence harvest by the Native population of the Pribilof 

 Islands; (3) methods of determining annual subsistence 

 demand for fur- seals; (4) waste and wasteful use of 

 fur seal meat or by-products; (5) managing and 

 monitoring the harvest on St. Paul and St. George 

 Islands; and (6) methods of establishing harvest levels. 

 The report of the working session will be available in 

 1992. The Marine Mammal Commission expects to 

 be consulted by the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 during 1992 in that agency's efforts to determine 

 what, if any, changes should be made to the current 

 subsistence harvest regime. 



International Actions 



As discussed in previous Annual Reports, in 1989 

 the United States put forward, but later withdrew, a 

 proposal to list the North Pacific fur seal on Appendix 

 n to the Convention on International Trade in Endan- 

 gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (see Chapter 

 IV of this Report). The proposal initially was made 

 in order to prevent seal parts firom animals taken in 

 the Alaska Native subsistence harvest, which are 

 indistinguishable from seal parts taken in commercial 

 harvests outside the United States, from illegally 

 entering international commerce. The proposal was 

 withdrawn to give the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service an opportunity to resolve questions regarding 

 the status of the Pribilof Islands' flir seal population, 

 the level of incidental take in high seas driftnet 

 fisheries, and the possibility that the high seas take 

 would expand existing markets for fur seal products. 



On 5 October 1989, die Commission wrote to the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, recommending that 

 the Service consider seeking an Appendix III listing 

 for the species pending reassessment of the Appendix 

 II listing proposal. On 4 December 1990, the Com- 

 mission again wrote to the Service, requesting that the 

 Service advise it as to whether the 1990 research 

 season had provided information pertinent to the 

 questions noted above and what steps the Service had 



35 



