addition to maintaining a log, exemption certificate holders must 

 display an exemption decal on the vessel and must submit to the 

 Service, by the end of each year, an annual report, consisting of 

 a copy of the required logs. Category III fishermen are not 

 required to submit annual reports, but must report all lethal 

 incidental taking of marine mammals to the Service within 10 days 

 after returning from the trip during which the taking occurred. 



By the end of 1989, approximately 10,400 vessel owners had 

 registered for and had been issued exemption certificates. Even 

 though the reporting regulations had yet to enter into force, 

 some 3,000 annual reports, based upon the requirements set out in 

 the proposed rule, had been received. Based upon those reports, 

 as well as other available information, including observer data, 

 the Service expects to propose revisions to its classification of 

 fisheries in 1990. 



As discussed above, the 1988 amendments required establish- 

 ment of an observer program to monitor between 20 to 35 percent 

 of the fishing operations conducted by category I vessels. Early 

 in 1989, however, it became apparent that anticipated funding 

 levels would be insufficient even for minimal (20 percent) 

 coverage of all designated category I fisheries. In response, 

 National Marine Fisheries Service scientists met on 14-16 June to 

 develop an observer strategy for Fiscal Years 1989 and 1990. At 

 that meeting, the Service established criteria for ranking the 

 priority for funding observer coverage in each category I fishery 

 based upon: (1) whether depleted species are taken; (2) the 

 population trends of the species taken in the fishery; (3) the 

 annual take rate of marine mammals, expressed in terms of 

 population percentage; and (4) whether marine mammals for which a 

 quota has been established (i.e. , Steller sea lions and North 

 Pacific fur seals) are taken. 



The Service also decided that, rather than providing 

 straight 20 percent coverage in the top priority fisheries until 

 funds were exhausted, it would consider reduced coverage in some 

 fisheries if reliable estimates of incidental taking could be 

 made from less than 20 percent coverage. Based upon its priority 

 ranking of category I fisheries, the level of coverage needed to 

 provide take estimates with a 20 percent coefficient of 

 variation, and estimates of observer costs, and assuming that 

 $850,000 would be available for observers in Fiscal Year 1989, 

 the Service proposed to cover the category I fisheries as 

 follows: four fisheries at 20 percent, one fishery at 15 

 percent, two fisheries at 10 percent, and no coverage for two 

 fisheries. In actuality, observers were placed in only four 

 category I fisheries in Fiscal Year 1989: the Bering Sea/Gulf of 

 Alaska trawl fishery, the Washington and Lower Columbia River set 

 gillnet fisheries, and the Gulf of Maine groundfish fishery. 

 In addition, observers were voluntarily accepted by fishermen in 

 the New England gillnet fishery, listed in category III. 



