MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1995 



Department of 

 Commerce 



I 



Department of 

 the Interior 



X 



Department of 

 Commerce 



Complete Application 



± 



Department of 

 the Interior 



Commission Recommendation 



Marine Mammal Commission 



Committee of Scientific 

 Advisors on Marine Mammals 



Figure 4. Process by which permit applications to take marine mammals are reviewed 



During 1995 the Commission, in consultation with 

 its Committee of Scientific Advisors, provided recom- 

 mendations on 25 permit applications submitted to the 

 Department of Commerce and 9 applications submit- 

 ted to the Department of the Interior. Of these, two 

 awaited final action by the Department of Commerce 

 and five awaited final action by the Department of the 

 Interior at the end of 1995. The Commission's 

 average review time for the 34 applications on which 

 it commented in 1995 was 31 days (range: 12-48 

 days). The Commission also made recommendations 

 on 45 requests to modify permits in 1995. The aver- 

 age time required for Commission review of these re- 

 quests was 20 days. 



The Department of Commerce took final action on 

 23 permit applications during 1995, including one 

 application that was received in 1994. The average 

 processing time, from the date the application was 

 received by the Department until final action was 

 taken, was 105 days (range: 72-203 days). The 

 Department of the Interior took final action on four 

 permit applications during 1995. The average pro- 

 cessing time, from the date the application was 

 received by the Department of the Interior until final 

 action was taken, was 92 days (range: 43-141 days). 

 If calculated from the date the Department considered 



an application to be complete, the average processing 

 times for the Departments of Commerce and the 

 Interior were 99 and 80 days, respectively, compared 

 to 103 and 78 days in 1994. 



Permit-Related Litigation 



As discussed in previous annual reports, in 1991 

 the National Marine Fisheries Service amended its 

 regulatory definition of the term "take" to include 

 feeding or attempting to feed marine mammals in the 

 wild. As such, feeding wild marine mammals without 

 a permit or other authorization constitutes a violation 

 of the Act. In response, a tour operator who had 

 been feeding wild dolphins on trips offered in the Gulf 

 of Mexico filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the 

 Southern District of Texas (Strong v. United States), 

 seeking either to invalidate the new regulation or to 

 compel issuance of a permit. While the district court 

 agreed with the plaintiffs interpretation of the statute 

 and invalidated the rule as it pertained to dolphins, 

 that ruling was overturned on appeal. 



The appellate court ruled that, inasmuch as Con- 

 gress had not spoken to the precise question of 

 whether feeding marine mammals in the wild consti- 



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