I . INTRODUCTION 



Fisheries management has traditionally been based upon 

 the concept of maximum sustainable yield (MSY) , which is 

 single species in orientation, involving no consideration 

 of the relationships between target species and the ecosystems 

 of which they are a part, or of changes in the physical and 

 biological environment of target species. However, it is 

 now recognized that fishery yields and target species pop- 

 ulation dynamics may both affect and be affected by other 

 ecosystem components, e.g., through interactions such as 

 predation or competition with other populations in the same 

 ecosystem, which may themselves be the targets of fisheries. 

 An awareness of the importance of ecological interactions 

 involving living resources has motivated and been reflected 

 in environmental legislation such as the Marine Mammal Pro- 

 tection Act (MMPA) , the Endangered Species Act (ESA) , and 

 the Fishery Conservation and Management Act (FCMA) . 



The Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 es- 

 tablished an exclusive U.S. Fishery Conservation Zone (FCZ) 

 extending two hundred miles seaward from the U.S. coastline, 

 created eight regional fishery management councils and charged 

 them with developing fishery management plans (FMPs) in ac- 

 cordance with national standards set forth in the Act, and 

 assigned authority and responsibility for implementing the 

 Act to the Secretary of Commerce. Several of the first fish- 

 ery management plans, prepared by the regional fishery man- 

 agement councils pursuant to the terms of the FCMA, did not 

 appear to respond fully to the intents and provisions of 

 the Act or of other relevant legislation, especially the 

 MMPA and the ESA. Therefore, in September 1978, the Marine 

 Mammal Commission contracted for a study to: 



1. identify actions taken by the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service (the Federal agency to which 

 the Secretary of Commerce delegated authority 

 and responsibility for implementing the FCMA) 

 and the regional fishery management councils to 

 implement the Fishery Conservation and Manage- 

 ment Act; 



2. compile and evaluate a representative sample of 

 proposed and final fishery management plans ; 



3 . identify marine mammal species , populations , or 

 habitats that might be affected by U.S. fisheries; 

 and 



