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have ranges which include, two or more regions. Also, it is not 

 clear whether the regional teams will be responsible for 

 considering and providing advice on activities, other than 

 commercial fisheries (e.g. , coastal development, offshore oil and 

 gas development, Native subsistence hunting, etc.), that may be 

 affecting or posing threats to marine mammals and their habitat 

 in the region. 



From a practical perspective, it might be more efficient to 

 differentiate between and use separate mechanisms to (1) identify 

 and ensure that taking from all sources is below the Potential 

 Biological Removal level; and (2) identify ways to reduce 

 mortality and serious injury incidental to commercial fishing 

 operations to as near zero as practicable, and how the allowable 

 take can be allocated equitably among the various user groups 

 when necessary to ensure that the total take does not exceed the 

 Potential Biological Removal level. This could be done by (a) 

 constituting groups of relevant experts, on a stock-by-stock 

 basis, to do status reviews and prepare recommended conservation 

 plans for critical stocks, taking into account only biological- 

 ecological considerations, as presently provided for by Section 

 115 of the Act; and (b) constituting regional groups, as proposed 

 in the Bill, to (i) identify and provide advice on actions that 

 might usefully be taken, on a fishery-by-fishery basis, to reduce 

 the incidental take of marine mammals to insignificant levels 

 approaching zero, and (ii) when the total take from all sources 

 is likely to exceed the estimated Potential Biological Removal 

 level, provide advice to the Secretary on how the allowable take 

 should be allocated to the various users to be most equitable. 



The Bill would require fishermen to report all lethal 

 incidental taking of marine mammals following completion of the 

 fishing trip during which the take occurred. It would require 

 that the National Marine Fisheries Service establish a monitoring 

 program to verify the accuracy of the reports and to detect 

 changes in the affected marine mammal stocks, with particular 

 emphasis on stocks determined to be critical. It would authorize 

 the Service to place observers on a representative sub-set of 

 fishing vessels to obtain statistically reliable information, and 

 would specify priorities for placing observers based primarily 

 upon the status of the affected marine mammal stocks. 



The Bill would require biennial registration of all vessels 

 engaged in fisheries that have been identified, through 

 information gathered in the course of the interim exemption 

 program, to take endangered, threatened or depleted species or 

 species identified as critical under the new regime. There 

 appears to be no requirement and no means provided in the Bill to 

 monitor the numbers of vessels engaged in fisheries that are not 

 now known to take from such species or stocks, or to obtain 

 effort, location, and other data from vessels engaged in such 

 fisheries. Also, there appears to be no explicit requirement to 



