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accordance with Congressional direction included in section 114. 

 In June 1993, representatives of several environmental groups and 

 fishing organizations negotiated an alternative proposal for 

 governing marine mammal/ fishery interactions. The 

 reauthorization legislation introduced by Members of the Merchant 

 Marine and Fisheries Committee drew from both of the proposals 

 submitted earlier. 



The bill, like the negotiated proposal, shifts the burden of 

 proof from individuals who want to use the marine environment to 

 NMFS for the protection of marine mammals. The MMPA originally 

 prohibited the taking of marine mammals unless the individual or 

 group desiring the taking could justify the need for the taking 

 and that the removal of marine mammals would cause no more than a 

 negligible impact to population stocks of marine mammals. The 

 bill would grant a general authorization to take marine mammals 

 unless the Secretary should demonstrate that such a taking would 

 be detrimental to populations of marine mammals. In the view of 

 NMFS, this important philosophical distinction goes to the very 

 heart of the MMPA. Moreover, the bill treats commercial fishing 

 differently than other members of the public, like public display 

 and scientific research user groups, who must still prove 

 individually that their activities will not be harmful to marine 

 mammals before they are authorized to take marine mammals, even 

 though those activities remove fewer marine mammals than 

 commercial fishing. Incidental taking of marine mammals in 



