MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT 

 REAUTHORIZATION 



TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1993 



House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Environ- 

 ment AND Natural Resources, Committee on Mer- 

 chant Marine and Fisheries, 



Washington, DC. 



The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in room 

 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Gerry E. Studds 

 [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. 



Present: Representatives Studds, Hochbrueckner, Pallone, Furse, 

 Hamburg, Eshoo, Saxton, Young, Gilchrest, Castle. 



Staff Present: Jeffrey Pike, Sue Waldron, Karen Steuer, Lesli 

 Gray, Leigh Ann Clayton, Tod Preston, Will Stelle, Cyndy Wilkin- 

 son, Laurel Bryant, Jill Brady, Tom Melius, Margherita Woods, 

 Janeanne Rex, Rod Moore, Julie Roberts, Eunice Groark. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. GERRY E. STUDDS, A U.S. REPRE- 

 SENTATIVE FROM MASSACHUSETTS, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOM- 

 MITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES 



Mr. Studds. The subcommittee will come to order. No group of 

 animals has captured the imagination of the American people in 

 the same way as marine mammals have. During the late '60's and 

 into the '70's, whales literally became the symbol of the environ- 

 mental movement — the umbrella under which thousands gathered 

 to push for the protection of fragile marine ecosystems and pre- 

 cious coastal environments. The Japanese and the Russians became 

 our enemies in a new antiwhaling war, and we cheered on ecowar- 

 riers in little rubber boats who risked their lives by placing them- 

 selves between harpoons and whales. 



It is little wonder then that this climate also included the pas- 

 sage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Initially generated by 

 the public outcry over the deaths of thousands of dolphins in the 

 tuna purse seine nets of the tropical Pacific, the Act went on to 

 become one of the strongest conservation laws ever passed by this 

 or any other nation. 



From the beginning, however, minimizing incidental takes of 

 marine mammals in commercial fisheries has been one of our 

 greatest challenges. Seals, sea lions, whales, and dolphins are 

 drawn to the sea's bounty for the same reasons we are. They make 

 their living from herring and crab just as some of us do. We com- 

 pete with them not only for food resources but for space. 



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