estimated mortality rate would be reliable in light of the likely 

 higher kill rate in unobserved sets. This latter problem, it 

 noted, would take on added importance in 1990 when the sundown 

 set restrictions currently in place for U.S. operators become a 

 reguired part of comparable foreign programs. The draft proposal 

 also raised statistically based guestions of whether the proposed 

 observer program would provide reliable estimates of porpoise 

 mortality. 



The Service published a somewhat revised version of its 

 proposal for 1990 on 19 December 1989. In addition to proposing 

 33 percent observer coverage for fleets of 10 or more vessels and 

 50 percent observer coverage for smaller fleets, the Service 

 discussed and reguested comments on the methods under 

 consideration for determining whether the estimated mortality for 

 a foreign nation is comparable to that of the United States. At 

 year's end, the Commission was reviewing and preparing comments 

 on that notice. 



Comparability Findings — Under a 18 March 1988 interim 

 final rule, all findings of comparability for tuna fishing 

 nations then in effect expired on 15 October 1988 unless, by 17 

 August 1988, the nation filed a substantially complete appli- 

 cation for a new finding under the new regulations. Only Mexico 

 filed such an application by the deadline and, beginning on 15 

 October, the importation into the United States of yellowfin tuna 

 from all other nations was prohibited. Shortly before the import 

 ban was to go into effect, four nations (Ecuador, Vanuatu, 

 Panama, and Venezuela) filed applications seeking findings of 

 comparability. 



By letters of 8 and 9 November 1988, the Commission provided 

 the Service with comments on the applications submitted by 

 Vanuatu and Ecuador. The Commission expressed its view that 

 neither country had provided the detailed description of its 

 enforcement program reguired by the Service's interim final 

 regulations and recommended that the Service defer issuing 

 findings of comparability until such detailed descriptions had 

 been provided. In a 16 November letter, the Commission provided 

 similar recommendations for Venezuela and Panama, which, in the 

 Commission's opinion, had also not sufficiently described their 

 enforcement programs. 



Despite the Commission's recommendations, the Service issued 

 positive determinations of comparability for the programs of all 

 four countries. In a 5 December 1988 letter to the Commission, 

 the Service indicated that the four nations had provided "limited 

 information" on the details of their enforcement programs, but 

 the Service had found them to be adeguate "since these [foreign] 

 laws or regulations are newly enacted and, as a result, there is 

 no enforcement experience to document at this time." The Service 

 further explained that it would be able to judge the nations' 



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