foreign nations that the Marine Mammal Protection Act's 

 objectives include (1) the reduction of incidental mortality and 

 serious injury rates to as near zero as is technologically and 

 economically feasible and (2) the restoration and maintenance of 

 all marine mammal stocks at optimum sustainable levels. 



The Commission also stressed the need to reconcile any 

 differences in the forms used by U.S. and Tuna Commission 

 observers, recommended that the use of video equipment to record 

 sets be considered, and suggested that greater use of foreign 

 nations in ongoing tuna-purpose research be made. 



The Pall's Porpoise Issue 



Dall's porpoise ( Phocoenoides dalli ) are entangled and 

 killed in drift gillnet fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean and 

 Bering Sea. Historically, most of this take has occurred 

 incidental to operations of the Japanese high seas salmon fleet. 

 In past years, the Japanese were permitted to fish for salmon 

 inside the U.S. 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone pursuant to the 

 International Convention for the High Seas Fisheries of the North 

 Pacific. As a result of recent litigation, however, the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service is unable to issue a permit to allow the 

 incidental take of marine mammals in this fishery and, thus, the 

 Japanese are prohibited from fishing for salmon within the U.S. 

 Exclusive Economic Zone. 



With the exclusion of the Japanese high seas salmon fishery 

 from U.S. waters, issues with respect to Dall's porpoise have 

 changed. There is still concern about the incidental take of 

 Dall's porpoise in the Japanese salmon fishery outside the U.S. 

 zone. Also, as noted in the following section on high seas 

 driftnet fisheries, Dall's porpoise is one of the marine mammal 

 species taken incidentally in undetermined numbers in the squid 

 driftnet fisheries that have flourished in the past ten years in 

 the North Pacific Ocean. In addition, as discussed in Chapter V, 

 Dall's porpoise are taken in a directed fishery by Japanese 

 fishermen. A total of 39,000 Dall's porpoise were reported to 

 have been taken in that fishery in 1988. 



Previous Annual Reports have included detailed discussion of 

 the Dall's porpoise issue since an incidental take permit was 

 issued to the Federation of Japan Salmon Fisheries Cooperative 

 Association in 1981. That permit authorized the annual 

 incidental take of up to 5,500 Dall's porpoise, 450 northern fur 

 seals, and 25 Steller sea lions and, in 1982, was legislatively 

 extended through 9 June 1987. At the conclusion of a formal 

 rulemaking, the Under Secretary of Commerce, on 22 May 1987, 

 issued a three-year permit to the Federation, authorizing the 

 incidental take of up to 6,039 Dall's porpoise over the life of 



150 



