enforcement programs better after the submission of annual 

 reports by the four countries in July 1989. 



A positive finding of comparability was issued for Mexico on 

 12 September 1989 and, based upon their 1988 annual reports, the 

 findings for Venezuela, Panama, Vanuatu, and Ecuador were renewed 

 on 11 December. Also, the ban on importation of tuna from El 

 Salvador that had been in effect since 10 October 1986 was 

 rescinded by Federal Register notice of 19 September 1989 when it 

 was determined that El Salvador's last purse seine vessel of 

 greater than 400 tons carrying capacity had been sold and was now 

 operating under the flag of Panama. 



To some extent, the problem of the adeguacy of foreign 

 enforcement programs raised by the Commission in 1988 was 

 alleviated in 1989. The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, 

 for the first time, established procedures whereby governments 

 would be provided observer reports in a form that could be used 

 for enforcement purposes. As indicated above, however, questions 

 remain as to whether an enforcement program comparable to that of 

 the United States is possible at substantially lower observer 

 coverage rates. 



Other Issues 



As discussed above, the Commission participated in an 

 international review of the Service's tuna-porpoise program on 

 12-13 December 1989. In a follow-up letter to that meeting, the 

 Commission raised several issues regarding the implementation of 

 the foreign tuna-porpoise program. Representatives of several 

 tuna fishing nations that attended the meeting expressed the view 

 that the United States had acted precipitously, without scien- 

 tific justification, and without consultation, when, in 1988, it 

 amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act to require that tuna be 

 embargoed from any nation whose marine mammal mortality rate is 

 more than twice that of the U.S. fleet in 1989 or more than 1.25 

 times the U.S. rate in 1990 or subsequent years. The fact that 

 these nations apparently were not aware that the comparability 

 requirements were established by the 1984, not the 1988, amend- 

 ments bespeaks a serious communications problem between the 

 Service and foreign nations. 



At the review meeting, the Executive Director of the Inter- 

 American Tropical Tuna Commission described its basic objectives 

 as: (1) maintaining high levels of tuna stocks in the eastern 

 tropical Pacific; (2) maintaining porpoise stocks affected by the 

 tuna fishery at levels sufficient to prevent their extinction; 

 and (3) making every reasonable effort to avoid the needless and 

 careless killing of porpoise. Noting that these objectives were 

 not the same as those of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the 

 Commission recommended that the Service and the Department of 

 State seek to revise the Tuna Commission's objectives and advise 



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