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5. 



3. The immediate and continual reduction of incidental and 

 intentional lethal and takes of marine mammals to work toward 

 the zero mortality rate goal of the MMPA . 



The MMPA contains an important provision which mandates a zero 

 mortality rate goal. The intent of this goal is to reduce 

 mortality to insignificant levels approaching zero. We acknowledge 

 that even the most scrupulous of fishing operations will 

 accidentally take some marine mammal lives in the course of 

 operations. However, little effort has been made in most fisheries 

 to reduce take. In fact, several fisheries kill marine mammals in 

 excess of thousands of individual animals. Clearly, such take is 

 not at levels which are approaching zero. 



The NMFS has proposed a system which would establish proposed 

 biological removal (PBR) levels for each stock of marine mammals. 

 The PBR levels are to be based on the best available information of 

 the abundance of the stock and its reproductive rate. They also 

 include a default multiplier which is designed to ensure that 

 stocks not be taken in excess of their recruitment. ,We support the 

 need to determine a number which is the maximum tolerable level of 

 mortality for each stock. However, we believe that this number 

 should not function as a quota. NMFS has proposed that fishery 

 operations make reductions in take down to this PBR level, but has 

 not mandated reductions below this PBR level. As we have pointed 

 out, the zero mortality rate goal is intended to drive reductions 

 in take toward an insignificant level approaching zero, not simply 

 to a level which is the maximum tolerable level for the stock. 



We believe that there should be no intentional lethal takes of 

 depleted, threatened or endangered marine mammals. Any other 

 intentional lethal takes should be allowed only after a rigorous 

 permitting process and only with a user-funded research program to 

 reduce these takes. Permits to fish should not automatically be 

 considered permits to intentionally kill marine mammals, as NMFS 

 has proposed. 



Some fisheries intentionally kill hundreds of marine mammals each 

 year. This occurs, in part, because no mitigation research is 

 funded to help them prevent marine mammals from interacting with 

 and damaging gear and taking fish. It is also due to 

 misunderstanding about the intent of the Act to protect marine 

 mammals from unnecessary death. The past five years of the interim 

 exemption program (which allowed fishermen to kill almost unlimited 

 numbers of marine mammals as long as they reported the kill to 

 facilitate data gathering) has only deepened this misunderstanding 

 of the intent of the Act. 



For these reasons, the MMPA should be amended to require the 

 immediate and continual reduction of incidental and 

 intentional takes of all marine mammals to work toward the 

 zero mortality rate goal of the MMPA. 



