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activities other than commercial fishing requires a cumbersome 

 regulatory process established under section 101(a)(5), which is 

 even more difficult than that for scientific research or public 

 display permits. 



The issue before the Congress is whether or not the MMPA will 

 give up, forever, a major element in the precautionary principle 

 for the protection of marine mammals. Placing the burden on 

 those entities that wish to take marine mammals provides a 

 significantly added measure of protection for marine mammal 

 stocks when data are limited. 



NMFS has additional concerns or is unclear regarding specific 

 portions of the legislation. Below, I present these concerns, 

 which appear in order of their appearance in the bill. The 

 Administration is reviewing H.R. 2760, the "Marine Mammal 

 Protection Act Amendments of 1993," which was just introduced. 

 We will provide any additional comments in writing for the 

 Committee's consideration. For example, the establishment of new 

 advisory bodies must be evaluated in relation to the 

 Administration's goal of reducing the overall number of such 

 bodies. 



SMALL TAKE PROVISIONS 



The legislation would amend section 101(a)(4) of the MMPA to 

 authorize the taking of endangered marine mammals incidental to 



74-195 0-94-2 



