CHAPTER VII 



MARINE MAMMAL/FISHERIES INTERACTIONS 



Marine mammals may interact with fisheries in a number of 

 ways. They may be disturbed, harassed, injured, or killed, 

 either accidentally or deliberately, during fishing operations; 

 they may take or damage bait and fish caught on lines, in traps, 

 and in nets; they may damage or destroy fishing gear or injure 

 fishermen while trying to remove bait or caught fish or when they 

 accidentally become entangled in fishing gear; and they may 

 compete with commercial and recreational fishermen for the same 

 fish and shellfish resources. 



The Marine Mammal Protection Act directs the Secretaries of 

 Commerce and the Interior, in consultation with the Commission, 

 to develop regulations governing the incidental taking of marine 

 mammals by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United 

 States. It also calls upon the Secretaries, again in 

 consultation with the Commission, to develop effective 

 international arrangements, through the Secretary of State, to 

 reduce the incidental taking of marine mammals to insignificant 

 levels approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate. 



Marine mammals are taken incidentally in the course of many 

 fisheries. One of the principal issues is this regard is the 

 "tuna-porpoise" issue, which involves the incidental mortality 

 and serious injury of porpoise entrapped in purse seine nets used 

 by commercial yellowfin tuna fishermen in the eastern tropical 

 Pacific Ocean. Over the past two decades, it has been the 

 subject of intense concern and controversy. More recently, there 

 has been growing recognition that incidental take in other 

 fisheries, particularly high seas driftnet fisheries, pose 

 serious threats to numerous species of marine mammals, seabirds, 

 sea turtles, and other marine organisms. The Commission's 

 activities during 1989 related to the tuna-porpoise, high seas 

 driftnet, and other fisheries issues are described below. 

 Commission efforts in previous years to identify and determine 

 how to solve conservation problems caused by marine mammal/ 

 fisheries interactions are described in previous Annual Reports. 



The Tuna-Porpoise Issue 



Discussions of the Commission's past activities and a 

 historical summary of the efforts to resolve the tuna-porpoise 

 problem are presented in previous Annual Reports. As discussed 

 below, the Commission, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the 

 U.S. Congress, the U.S. tuna industry, and others continued to 

 devote substantial attention to the issue in 1989. Much of this 

 effort was directed towards: (1) implementation of amendments to 



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