MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1995 



minimum population estimate of 39,500 animals and 

 an average annual bycatch level of 1 ,300 porpoises for 



1992 and 1993, the goal called for reducing bycatch 

 levels to 1,040, 780, and 520 porpoises by years two, 

 three, and four, respectively. To achieve this goal, it 

 proposed rules to limit seasonal fishing effort begin- 

 ning in April 1994, pending the development of 

 alternative time-area closures. 



As noted in its previous annual report, the Com- 

 mission commented to the Service on 15 November 



1993 recommending, among other things, a more 

 expeditious reduction of incidental-take levels and 

 expressing support for developing time-area closures. 

 The Service published final rules on 1 March 1994 to 

 implement the Council's recommendations. 



To allow it to respond quickly to unforeseen 

 developments, the Council's framework management 

 system provides for expedited rulemaking, whereby a 

 recommended measure can be implemented as a final 

 rule by the Service without public comments on 

 proposed rules, provided that the Council considers 

 the measure at two of its public meetings before 

 recommending it to the Service. Using the expedited 

 rulemaking process, the Council recommended and 

 the Service adopted a system of time-area closures for 

 the sink gillnet component of the fishery. The final 

 rules, published by the Service on 20 May 1994, took 

 effect before the measures to reduce fishing effort 

 were implemented. 



The closure boundaries adopted by the Service 

 excluded some areas where bycatch rates had been 

 high and the closure times covered only part of the 

 high bycatch periods in different areas. For example, 

 the "mid-coast" closure excluded most of Jeffreys 

 Ledge, allowing fishermen to simply move from the 

 closed area to another area where bycatch rates were 

 high. The mid-coast closure was in effect only for 

 November, rather than September to December when 

 peak bycatch periods had been observed. Also, the 

 "northeast" closure was effective from mid-August to 

 mid-September although the peak bycatch in that area 

 occurred from June through September. 



As noted in the previous annual report, it seemed 

 questionable whether the adopted measures would 

 achieve the Council's goal of reducing bycatch by 20 



percent in the first year of its four-year program. As 

 noted above, the Commission's 14 August 1995 

 comments to the Council on the acoustic deterrent 

 experiment recommended that the time-area provisions 

 for the closed areas be expanded to better bracket the 

 times and areas of observed harbor porpoise bycatch. 



Information from the 1994 observer program on 

 harbor porpoise bycatch was not available from the 

 Service early in 1995, and the Council took no action 

 in advance of the second year of its four-year take 

 reduction program to strengthen bycatch control 

 measures. On 9 August 1995, however, the Service 

 advised the Council that, based on a partial analysis of 

 observer program data for 1994, the harbor porpoise 

 bycatch rate for September and December of that year 

 in the mid-coast area was about three times higher 

 than catch rates from 1991 to 1993, and the highest 

 catch rates were in September and October. The 

 tentative findings therefore indicated that there was 

 greater year-to-year variability in the timing of peak 

 bycatch levels than previously thought, and that the 

 adopted closures for the area were insufficient to meet 

 the take-reduction goal. 



To develop new measures, the Council asked its 

 harbor porpoise review team to examine the new 

 information and recommend new bycatch reduction 

 measures. A representative of the Marine Mammal 

 Commission was invited to participate on the team, 

 which met on 8 September 1995. During its meeting, 

 the team considered preliminary analyses from the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service's 1994 observer 

 effort as well as analyses from earlier years of the 

 program, preliminary results from the 1994 acoustic 

 deterrent experiment (see above), and the Service's 

 final stock assessment for the Gulf of Maine/Bay of 

 Fundy harbor porpoise stock (see above). 



With regard to information from the 1994 observer 

 program, the team was advised that preliminary 

 analyses of bycatch rates were available only for the 

 mid-coast area, and that summary analyses had been 

 delayed by data processing problems. It also was told 

 that because of new methods adopted by the Service 

 in 1994 to record fishing effort, it would no longer be 

 possible to assess the geographic distribution of harbor 

 porpoise bycatch within fishing areas. As a result, 

 new information to evaluate appropriate closure 



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