MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1998 



On 30 December 1998 the National Marine Fisher- 

 ies Service published a Federal Registernotice extend- 

 ing those permits through 30 June 1999. Rather than 

 reissue the permits for a three-year period, the Service 

 chose to extend them for six months while it reviewed 

 its criteria for determining whether authorized taking 

 will have a negligible impact on listed marine mam- 

 mal stocks. Under existing criteria, the Service 

 generally considers aimual mortalities and serious 

 injuries to be insignificant at the population level if 

 they do not exceed 10 percent of the potential biologi- 

 cal removal level calculated for a stock. The Service 

 requested comment on other formulations, such as 

 basing the determination on the recovery rate of the 

 stock or tying the criteria to achievement of the zero 

 mortality and serious injury rate goal. The Service 

 also solicited comments on whether the permits should 

 cover taking other than those involving mortalities or 

 serious injuries and, if so, whether permits authoriz- 

 ing these less serious types of taking alone should be 

 issued. The Commission expects to comment on these 

 issues early in 1999. 



List of Fisheries — A key feature of the inciden- 

 tal-take regime is annual publication of a list of 

 fisheries placing each U.S. fishery into one of three 

 categories based on the frequency with which marine 

 mammals are killed or seriously injured. Vessel 

 owners participating in category I or category II 

 fisheries must register and are subject to certain other 

 requirements. Those participating in category III 

 fisheries need not register for an incidental-take 

 authorization, but are required to report any marine 

 mammal mortality or injury that occurs incidental to 

 their operations. 



Under regulations published by the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, a category I fishery is one 

 in which annual mortality and serious injury of any 

 marine mammal stock is equal to or greater than 50 

 percent of the stock's potential biological removal 

 level. A category II fishery is one in which annual 

 mortality and serious injury is between 1 and 50 

 percent of the stock's potential biological removal 

 level, provided that the total mortality and serious 

 injury of the stock from all fisheries combined is 

 greater than 10 percent of its potential biological 

 removal level. All other fisheries {i.e., those which, 

 combined with other fisheries, do not take more than 



10 percent of a stock's potential biological removal 

 level or that individually take less than 1 percent of 

 any stock's potential biological removal level) are 

 placed in category III. 



The Service published its final list of fisheries for 

 1998 on 4 February 1998. Although the Service 

 examined new data for several fisheries, the 1998 list 

 included no changes in the classification of fisheries 

 from the 1997 list. The Service noted that data on 

 stranded bottlenose dolphins placed the mid-Atlantic 

 coastal gillnet fishery on the borderline between 

 category I and category II, but stated that it wanted to 

 conduct a more thorough analysis of the data before 

 proposing listing the fishery in category I. The 

 Service considered including a new drift gillnet 

 fishery for yellowfin and albacore tuna on the list of 

 fisheries, but on further examination, included this 

 fishery with the mid-Atlantic coastal gillnet fishery in 

 category II. The Service also noted the existence of 

 an offshore Atlantic herring trawl fishery. By analogy 

 with the trawl fishery for squid, mackerel, and 

 butterfish, and the potential of this fishery to interact 

 with harbor porpoises, the Service believed that this 

 fishery should be listed as a category II fishery. 

 However, the Service deferred including the offshore 

 trawl fishery for herring on the list of fisheries until 

 the public had been given an opportunity to review 

 and comment on the issue. 



The National Marine Fisheries Service published 

 the proposed list of fisheries for 1999 on 11 August 

 1998. The proposed list reflected the new estimates 

 of incidental mortality and serious injury contained in 

 the 1996 stock assessment reports and the 1998 draft 

 stock assessment reports. As expected, the Service 

 proposed listing the offshore component of the mid- 

 water trawl fishery for Atlantic herring as a category 



11 fishery. Rather than list this fishery separately, 

 however, the Service proposed combining it with the 

 mid- Atlantic coastal herring trawl fishery, which 

 previously was listed as a category III fishery. 



The Gulf of Mexico menhaden purse seine fishery 

 was classified as a category III fishery on the 1998 list 

 of fisheries. Estimated mortalities of bottlenose 

 dolphins observed between 1992 and 1995 suggest that 

 this fishery may warrant listing in category I. The 

 Service, however, chose to propose placing this 



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