were insufficient to judge when, where, and how many animals 

 might have been affected. Therefore, the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service began a series of coastal and offshore aerial 

 surveys in the fall of 1987 to better determine the distribution, 

 number, sizes, composition, and movements of dolphin pods along 

 the mid-Atlantic coast and to determine and monitor the number of 

 dead animals floating at sea and washed up on beaches in selected 

 index areas. 



The survey results suggest that only the nearshore 

 bottlenose dolphin population may have been affected by the 1987- 

 1988 die-off and that the impact was substantial. Perhaps 50 

 percent or more of the population died, and at least some of the 

 survivors were severely debilitated and therefore unlikely to 

 breed. On 11 November 1988, the Center for Marine Conservation 

 petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to initiate 

 action to list the mid-Atlantic coastal migratory stock of 

 bottlenose dolphins as depleted under the Marine Mammal 

 Protection Act. In response, the Service, by Federal Register 

 notice of 11 October 1989, published an advance notice of 

 proposed rulemaking and request for comments on the proposal. In 

 the notice, the Service concluded that the coastal migratory 

 stock of bottlenose dolphins in the mid-Atlantic probably 

 declined by more than 50 percent as a result of the 1987-88 die- 

 off. It further stated that, if the stock was determined to be 

 depleted, the Service would prepare a conservation plan for the 

 purpose of conserving and restoring the stock to its optimum 

 sustainable population, as required by the 1988 amendments to the 

 Marine Mammal Protection Act. Such a plan would include: (a) an 

 assessment of the existing and possible threats to the 

 population, such as pollution and commercial fishing, ; (b) a 

 discussion of critical information needs such as post die-off 

 abundance indices and stock differentiation, (c) a description of 

 research and management objectives, and (d) a schedule for 

 implementation . 



The Commission, in consultation with its Committee of 

 Scientific Advisors, reviewed the notice of proposed rulemaking 

 and, by letter of 21 December 1989, forwarded its comments to the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service. In its letter, the Commission 

 indicated that the Service's notice provided a reasonable 

 hypothetical basis for designating the nearshore stock of 

 bottlenose dolphins that appears to migrate seasonally along the 

 coasts of the mid-Atlantic states as depleted. The Commission 

 noted that the Service's rationale for listing the stock as 

 depleted was based largely on a number of assumptions which would 

 be difficult, if not impossible, to verify. In this context, the 

 Commission noted that the Federal Register notice did not 

 indicate what could or would be done to determine when the 

 affected population or populations had recovered and could then 

 be delisted. 



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