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commercial fishing operations. The amendment is necessary 

 because the current wording of that section applies only to 

 stocks of marine mammals that are not depleted. 



NMFS agrees that marine mammals listed under the Endangered 

 Species Act (ESA) should be protected under the MMPA as well. 

 However, the ESA requires that incidental taking of marine 

 mammals be authorized by section 101(a)(5), rather than 

 101(a)(4), of the MMPA; therefore, amendment to 101(a)(5) or to 

 section 7 of the ESA will be necessary to authorize incidental 

 taking of endangered marine mammals in fishing operations. 



The bill is clear in that section 101(a)(4) rather than the new 

 section 118, added by the bill, should be used for authorizing 

 incidental taking of endangered marine mammals. However, many of 

 the features of section 118, such as observer requirements, 

 vessel registration, reporting of lethal takes, conservation 

 plans, and the ability to promulgate emergency regulations to 

 halt actions when takes may exceed the specified limits, would 

 provide safeguards to endangered marine mammals. It is not clear 

 why the bill would not apply these elements of the new section 

 118 to endangered marine mammals. 



SECTION 118: ZERO MORTALITY RATE GOAL 



Like the negotiated proposal and the regime submitted by NMFS, 



this legislation supports the Zero Mortality Rate Goal by stating 



