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Good morning. I am Ms. Sharon Young, wildlife consultant for the 

 International Wildlife Coalition (IWC) . I appreciate having the 

 opportunity to testify today on behalf of the IWC and The Humane 

 Society of the United States with regard to the problem of the 

 management of fisheries interactions with marine mammals. We are 

 also joined in this testimony by the Animal Protection Institute, 

 and our combined constituency of two million persons worldwide. 



We sincerely appreciate the Chairman's strong commitment to the 

 principles of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) of 1972 and 

 look forward to working with you and the Committee staff during the 

 reauthorization process. 



INTRODUCTION 



As you know, one of the primary goals of the MMPA is to reduce 

 marine mammal mortality to "an insignificant level approaching 

 zero." The zero mortality rate goal is fundamental and must not be 

 eroded. Without it, marine mammal populations cannot be expected 

 to remain at, or recover to, their optimal sustainable populations 

 (OSP) . We are concerned that the past five years of the marine 

 mammal interim exemption program and the current National Marine 

 Fisheries Service (NMFS) proposed regime to govern fisheries 

 interactions have undermined the original legislative intent of 

 Congress when it first passed the MMPA in 1972. Not only do the 

 NMFS proposals undermine some of the goals of the MMPA, but 

 significant flaws in the proposal continue to leave marine mammal 

 populations without sufficient protection from excessive takes by 

 the fishing industry. Congress and the American public have long 

 supported legislation which fully protects marine mammals from 

 unnecessary mortality; however, that protection has never been 

 achieved. The overriding concern of the organization that I 

 represent today is that the reauthorization of the MMPA must 

 achieve verifiable and significant reductions in the overall level 

 of marine mammal mortality which occurs in fishing operations. 



BACKGROUND INFORMATION 



For the past five years, under the interim exemption program, NMFS 

 has been gathering data to assess the nature and severity of the 

 problem of marine mammal interactions with fisheries. These data 

 show that interactions occur to a far greater extent than Congress 

 or the American public believes. In fact, NMFS currently estimates 

 that more than 100,000 marine mammals are killed each year . This 

 astounding rate of death does not even include natural mortalities 

 to which all populations are subjected. After 20 years of MMPA 

 protection, fishery kills have resulted in NMFS placing 31, out of 

 64 interaction stocks, in a category prioritizing them for most 

 urgent study. In just five years of the interim exemption, three 

 more stocks of marine mammals have been accepted or proposed for 

 listing as threatened under the endangered species act or as 

 depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Two additional 



