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6. Reduction of inequities in the permitting process that may 

 result in unnecessary deaths of marine mammals . 



In order to protect marine mammals, we must monitor marine mammal 

 stocks and restrict activities which negatively impact them. While 

 NMFS has expanded the scope of its proposal to include recreational 

 fishermen who sell their catch, we wish to point out that there are 

 large numbers of non-commercial fishermen who use gear identical to 

 that implicated in fisheries interaction. These fishermen, 

 therefore, can also be assumed to interact with marine mammals but 

 are not regulated in this Act. This omission results in marine 

 mammals being taken in fishing operations outside of the 

 jurisdiction of the provisions of this proposal. Non-commercial 

 fisheries (e.g., fishermen setting nets to catch bait fish and 

 fishermen setting nets to catch fish for consumption by friends and 

 family) often use gear types which are known to interact frequently 

 with marine mammals (eg. gill nets) . These non-commercial 

 fisheries should be required to register along with commercial 

 fishermen who use the same gear type and sell their catch. This 

 not only brings them under the same strictures and monitoring as 

 commercial fisheries, but also adds funds to the NMFS program 

 budget through the thousands of added registrations. 



We are equally distressed that "experimental" fisheries are assumed 

 not to take marine mammals before proving that this is the case. 

 In fact, most "experiments" are new only because they target new 

 species of fish. Generally, these experiments are use known 

 methods, rather than novel gear types or unique techniques. 

 Therefore, we can usually predict the approximate likelihood of 

 interacting with marine mammals. In the past, these fisheries have 

 been given a great deal of latitude and have not been subject to 

 rigorous monitoring. We believe that, instead, they should be 

 treated with the same degree of monitoring as any fishery which can 

 be presumed to interact with marine mammals to a significant 

 degree. Only if the fishery proved that it did not have an 

 interaction problem, should monitoring be decreased. 



The NMFS proposal allows fisheries to apply for and receive permits 

 to kill marine mammals with greater ease than researchers can apply 

 for and receive permits to study marine mammals. This inequity 

 should be corrected by making it more difficult to obtain permits 

 for lethal takes of marine mammals. 



For these reasons, we believe that the MMPA should be 

 amended to reduce inequities in the permitting process that 

 may result in unnecessary deaths of marine mammals. 



