MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1992 
amendments to make available to the Secretary of 
Commerce and to the public recommended guidelines 
to govern the take of marine mammals incidental to 
commercial fishing operations after the interim 
exemption expires on 1 October 1993. The amend- 
ments required that the guidelines: 
“(A) be designed to provide a scientific rationale 
and basis for determining how many marine 
mammals may be incidentally taken under a 
regime to be adopted to govern such taking 
after October 1, 1993; 
“(B) be based on sound principles of wildlife 
management, and be consistent with and in 
furtherance of the purposes and policies set 
forth in this Act; and 
“(C) to the maximum extent practicable, include as 
factors to be considered and utilized in deter- 
mining permissible levels of such taking — 
(i) the status and trends of the affected marine 
mammal population stocks; 
(ii) the abundance and annual net recruitment 
of such stocks; 
(iii) the level of confidence in the knowledge of 
the affected stocks; and 
(iv) the extent to which incidental taking will 
likely cause or contribute to their decline 
or prevent their recovery to optimum sus- 
tainable population levels.” 
On 12 July 1990 after consideration of comments 
received on draft guidelines, the Commission trans- 
mitted its recommended guidelines to the National 
Marine Fisheries Service. Copies of the guidelines 
were also provided to other interested parties, includ- 
ing commercial fishing organizations and environmen- 
tal groups. In addition to the recommended guide- 
lines, the Commission prepared and provided to the 
Service and others a document summarizing all 
substantive comments it received on the draft guide- 
lines, explaining how they were addressed. 
90 
The Commission, in its guidelines, recommended 
that the legislation to govern the taking of marine 
mammals incidental to commercial fishing after 1 
October 1993 do the following: 
¢ re-affirm the Marine Mammal Protection Act’s 
goal to reduce the incidental kill and serious injury 
of marine mammals in the course of commercial 
fishing to insignificant levels approaching a zero 
mortality and serious injury rate; 
¢ reinstate the substantive, although not necessarily 
the procedural, requirements of the general permit 
and small-take provisions of the Marine Mammal 
Protection Act for marine mammal populations 
known or reasonably believed to be at their opti- 
mum sustainable population levels; 
¢ allow the incidental take of marine mammals listed 
as endangered or threatened under the Endangered 
Species Act or designated as depleted under the 
Marine Mammal Protection Act when: (1) a 
recovery plan or conservation plan, including an 
implementation plan, has been developed, adopted, 
and put in place; (2) the authorized level of take, 
by itself and in combination with other sources of 
mortality, is not likely to cause or contribute to a 
further population decline or cause more than a 10 
percent increase in the estimated time it will take 
for the affected species or population to recover to 
its maximum net productivity level; (3) ongoing 
and planned monitoring and enforcement programs 
are adequate to ensure that the authorized levels of 
take are not exceeded and to detect any unforeseen 
effects on the size or productivity of the affected 
species or population; and (4) there is good reason 
to believe that the incidental take has been or will 
be reduced to as near zero as practicable; 
¢ authorize, on an experimental basis, for periods of 
three to five years, the incidental take from species 
and population stocks whose status is uncertain 
when: (1) the authorized level of incidental take 
clearly would have a negligible effect on popula- 
tion size and productivity; and (2) ongoing or 
planned assessment, monitoring, and enforcement 
programs are adequate to ensure that the authorized 
level of take will not be exceeded, the status of the 
affected species or population stock will be deter- 
