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4. as possible, minimize hardships to commercial 

 fisheries while achieving objectives 1, 2, 

 and 3 . 



The Commission recommended that the Regime to Govern the 

 Taking of Marine Mammals Incidental to Commercial Fishing after 1 

 October 1993 — 



• reaffirm the Marine Mammal Protection Act's goal 

 of maintaining marine mammal populations within 

 their optimum sustainable population range; 



• reaffirm the Act's goal to reduce the incidental 

 kill and serious injury of marine mammals in the 

 course of commercial fishing operations 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 

 within their optimum sustainable population range; 



• allow the incidental take of marine mammals listed 

 as endangered or threatened under the Endangered 

 Species Act or 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 

 ten 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 teike has been or will 

 be reduced to as near zero as practicable; 



• authorize, on an experimental basis, for periods 

 of 3-5 years, the incidental take from species and 

 population stocks whose status is uncertain when: 

 (1) the authorized level of incidental take 



