MARDSfE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1991 



regime might be translated into law and an estimate 

 of costs associated with implementing the proposed 

 regime. 



The National Marine Fisheries Service's 

 Revised Proposed Regime 



The National Marine Fisheries Service received a 

 large number of comments on its proposed regime. 

 While comments were received on all aspects of the 

 proposal, many commenters focused on two points, 

 the complexity of the Service's proposal and the broad 

 applicability of the proposed regime. Several com- 

 menters also believed that more attention should be 

 given to those fisheries with significant marine mam- 

 mal incidental take problems. To address those 

 concerns and other comments received on its original 

 proposal, the Service, on 20 November 1991, made a 

 revised proposal available for public review. 



In the revised proposal, the Service replaced the 

 term "allowable biological removal" with "potential 

 biological removal" to clarify that it represented the 

 total number of individuals that could potentially be 

 removed from a population, not necessarily that that 

 number of removals would be authorized. The 

 Service also proposed revisions to the recovery factors 

 to be used in calculating potential biological removal 

 levels in response to comments that the original 

 recovery factors were not necessary for effective 

 conservation of marine mammal stocks. The recovery 

 factor for severely depleted stocks (those below one- 

 third of carrying capacity) and those of unknown 

 status was revised upward from 0. 1 to 0.5 (a five-fold 

 increase) and the factor for stocks between one-third 

 and two-thirds of carrying capacity was revised from 

 0.5 to 0.75. Under the revised proposal, no recovery 

 factor would be used for stocks determined to be 

 above two-thirds of carrying capacity. The Service 

 noted that these changes would allow marine mammal 

 stocks to attain optimum sustainable population levels 

 within a reasonable period of time and would not 

 appreciably increase recovery times. 



The Service also proposed a new, and somewhat 

 more complex, method for classifying fisheries. 

 Historical data would be used to determine which 

 commercial fisheries interact with marine mammals 

 and which do not. All vessels operating in fisheries 

 identified as interacting with marine mammals would 



be required to register with the Service. These 

 fisheries would be fiirther classified based on the 

 status of the marine mammals taken and the level of 

 total removals relative to the calculated potential 

 biological removal. Class A fisheries would be those 

 that interact with endangered, threatened, or depleted 

 marine mammals or with marine mammal stocks with 

 an estimated annual removal level (from all sources) 

 which equals or exceeds the potential biological 

 removal level. Class B would include those fisheries 

 that do not interact with depleted marine mammals but 

 that interact with stocks whose potential biological 

 removal level, although not now exceeded by total 

 annual removals, is expected to be exceeded within 

 the next three to five years. Class C fisheries would 

 be those that do not interact with marine mammals 

 from depleted stocks or from stocks whose potential 

 biological removal level is likely to be exceeded 

 within the next five years. 



Under the Service's revised proposal, only Class A 

 fisheries would be subject to comprehensive monitor- 

 ing on an annual basis. Only when the total fisheries 

 removal is expected to exceed the portion of the 

 potential biological removal level allocated to fisher- . 

 ies, however, would annual monitoring be required. 

 Class B fisheries would, at the Service's discretion, be 

 monitored every two to five years. Class C fisheries 

 would be monitored every five to ten years, depend- 

 ing on the estimated level of incidental removals. I 



Fishery-specific quotas would be established only 

 for Class A fisheries, and then only if the portion of 

 the potential biological removal level allocated to 

 fisheries would otherwise be exceeded. Removals in 

 fisheries subject to quotas would be monitored suffi- 

 ciently to enable the Service to implement additional 

 resfrictions on fishing activities if necessary to prevent 

 the potential biological removal level from being 

 exceeded. 



Other major changes contained in the Service's 

 revised proposal included: sfreamlining of the alloca- J 

 tion process and elimination of the Regional Quota " 

 Boards proposed earlier; requiring development of 

 annual research plans to identify and fill data gaps 

 with respect to marine mammal stocks; recommending 

 that the new regime be implemented under a "phased 

 sfrategy" with a goal of reducing take to potential 

 biological removal levels by the end of 1997. 



90 



