In revising parts 1 and 2 of its Animal Welfare Act 

 regulations, the Service found it necessary to consider changes 

 to Part 3, the standards for care and maintenance. Although 

 revisions to the standards were proposed in a 15 March 1989 

 Federal Register notice, none of those changes would affect the 

 requirements applicable to marine mammal facilities. 



National Environmental Policy Act 



The Progressive Animal Welfare Society and other 

 environmental and animal rights groups filed suit against the 

 Navy and the Department of Commerce on 3 April 1989 challenging 

 the Navy's decision to utilize bottlenose dolphins from the Gulf 

 of Mexico in the cold waters of Puget Sound. Among other things, 

 the plaintiffs contended that the decision was procedurally 

 deficient in that the Navy did not prepare an environmental 

 assessment or an environmental impact statement. Similarly, 

 plaintiffs claimed that the Department of Commerce violated the 

 National Environmental Policy Act by not preparing an environ- 

 mental document before issuing the requested permits and 

 concurrence letters to the Navy. 



In a motion to dismiss the National Environmental Policy Act 

 claims, the Navy argued that the Act does not require an assess- 

 ment of the project's impacts on itself, but only on the pre- 

 existing environment. That is, while the impacts of removing 

 dolphins from the wild and the effect on the Puget Sound environ- 

 ment of introducing those dolphins must be considered, the Navy 

 argued that the effect of keeping the dolphins in captivity on 

 the dolphins themselves need not be evaluated. 



On 2 November 1989, the District Court denied the Navy's 

 motion ruling that the decision to deploy dolphins in Puget Sound 

 "is a major federal action that requires an analysis of the 

 effect of such use on the dolphins themselves." This decision 

 could be applicable to other situations where marine mammals are 

 held in captivity and seems to require that Federal agencies that 

 issue marine mammal permits or that maintain marine mammals, in 

 fulfilling their National Environmental Policy Act responsi- 

 bilities, consider the effects of captivity on the animals. 



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