and transmittal of its recommendation to the Department; and 

 3) final processing by the Department, including consideration 

 of all comments and recommendations of the Commission and 

 the public, resulting in the approval or denial of the applica- 

 tion. The total review time (initial receipt of application 

 until final Departmental action) depends on many factors, 

 including: the sufficiency of the information provided by the 

 applicant; special actions, such as inspecting an applicant's 

 marine mammal holding facilities, that may be warranted before 

 reaching a decision; and the efficiency and thoroughness of 

 those responsible for the review. 



During 1982 the Commission made recommendations on 33 

 applications submitted to the Department of Commerce and six 

 applications submitted to the Department of the Interior. The 

 Commission's average review time for complete applications was 

 29 days (median, 25 days) . Not included in the preceding 

 statistics are recommendations on two applications which were 

 still awaiting final action by the Department of Commerce at the 

 end of 1982, and three applications which were under Commission 

 review at year's end. The Commission, in consultation with its 

 Committee of Scientific Advisors, also made recommendations on 

 twelve requests to modify permits during 1982. The average 

 time required for Commission review of these matters was 28 days. 



For the 33 applications processed by the Department of 

 Commerce during 1982, it took an average of 109 days (median, 

 73 days) from the date the application was received by the 

 Department until final action was taken. The six permit 

 applications submitted to the Department of the Interior were 

 processed in an average of 85 days (median, 82 days) . If 

 calculated from the date of receipt of a complete application 

 at the Services, the average processing times for the 

 Departments of Commerce and the Interior were 74 and 75 days, 

 respectively, compared to 60 and 86 days, respectively, in 1981. 



Included in the preceding statistics are processing times 

 for nine applications (8 to Commerce and 1 to Interior) which 

 were received in 1981 but did not receive final action until 1982. 

 All but one of these nine applications involved lengthy delays in 

 order to obtain necessary additional information and clarification 

 from permit applicants. Total processing time for these nine 

 applications averaged 210 days (99 days from date complete) for 

 the Department of Commerce and 103 days (61 from date complete) 

 for the Department of the Interior. The 30 applications received 

 in 1982 and acted on in 1982 by the Commission and the Services 

 (25 Commerce; 5 Interior) required average processing times of: 

 28 days for Commission review; 77 days (66 from date complete) 

 for final action by the Department of Commerce; and 81 days 

 (78 from date complete) for final action by the Department of 

 the Interior. 



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