Chapter IV — Marine Mammal-Fisheries Interactions 



Take of Endangered and Threatened Species — 



The Service agreed with the Commission that the 

 information provided in the proposed rule and accom- 

 panying environmental assessment was insufficient to 

 promote informed comment on the proposed findings 

 for endangered and threatened species. Therefore, the 

 Service indicated that it would publish a separate 

 notice that lists those fisheries that meet the criteria 

 for such incidental-take authorizations and explains the 

 process by which negligible impact determinations 

 have been made. 



On 31 August 1995 the Service published a notice 

 in the Federal Register announcing negligibility 

 findings under section 101(a)(5)(E) of the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act for three stocks of listed 

 marine mammals — the central North Pacific stock of 

 humpback whale and the eastern and western stocks of 

 Steller sea lion. Based on these findings, the Service 

 issued an interim permit authorizing the taking of 

 marine mammals from these stocks incidental to 22 

 commercial fisheries in Alaska and 2 along the west 

 coast. This authorization, originally set to expire at 

 the end of 1995, was extended until 1 March 1996 to 

 coincide with the effective date of the new list of 

 fisheries. 



The Service also noted that it was unable to make 

 negligible impact findings for seven other stocks of 

 endangered marine mammals known to interact with 

 commercial fisheries — the western North Atlantic 

 stocks of right, fin, sperm, and humpback whales, the 

 eastern North Pacific stocks of sperm and humpback 

 whales, and the Hawaiian monk seal. For 15 other 

 stocks of endangered or threatened marine mammals, 

 the Service noted that it had no documented evidence 

 of fishery-related interactions. 



List of Fisheries — The Service published its final 

 list of fisheries for 1996 on 28 December 1995. 

 Because it had taken longer than expected to complete 

 the list, the Service announced that the 1995 list 

 would remain in effect until 1 March 1996. This 

 extension will allow fishermen in reclassified fisheries 

 time to register for an authorization under the new 

 section 118 requirements. 



Under the revised list of fisheries, two Pacific and 

 four Atlantic fisheries are placed in category I. 



Category II includes 16 Pacific fisheries, primarily in 

 Alaska, and 6 Atlantic fisheries. The remaining 

 fisheries all have been placed in category HI. 



Take Reduction Teams — As noted above, 

 section 118 requires the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service to develop a take reduction plan for each 

 strategic stock that interacts with a fishery that fre- 

 quently or occasionally kills or seriously injures 

 marine mammals. Take reduction plans, among other 

 things, are to include recommended regulatory or 

 voluntary measures designed to reduce incidental 

 mortality and serious injury and recommended dates 

 for achieving specific objectives. The immediate goal 

 of a take reduction plan for a strategic stock is to 

 reduce, within six months, incidental mortality and 

 serious injury to levels less than the potential biologi- 

 cal removal level calculated in the stock assessment. 

 The long-term goal of the plan is to reduce incidental 

 mortality and serious injury to insignificant levels 

 approaching a zero rate within five years, taking into 

 account the economics of the fishery, existing technol- 

 ogy, and applicable state or regional fishery manage- 

 ment plans. 



As a first step toward preparing take reduction 

 plans, the Service contracted for a study to examine 

 how best to undertake the process. A report provided 

 to the Service in April 1995 proposed a model for 

 convening take reduction teams and specifically 

 considered the establishment of teams for the Gulf of 

 Maine/Bay of Fundy stock of harbor porpoise and the 

 Atlantic coastal stock of bottlenose dolphin. 



Although required to establish take reduction teams 

 for certain strategic stocks within 30 days of complet- 

 ing the final stock assessments (i.e., by 25 September 

 1995), no team was established during 1995. Howev- 

 er, the Service expects to establish four take reduction 

 teams early in 1996. The teams would address the 

 incidental take of Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy harbor 

 porpoise, offshore cetaceans taken in Pacific gillnet 

 fisheries, offshore small cetaceans taken in Atlantic 

 gillnet fisheries, and Atlantic baleen whales, focusing 

 on right and humpback whales. The Service has 

 decided to defer the establishment of take reduction 

 teams for the Atlantic coastal stock of bottlenose 

 dolphin and for marine mammals in Alaska, in part 

 because of insufficient funding. 



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