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Testimony of the Center for Marine Conservation 



Finally, the registration system proposed by H.R. 2760 will probably fail to 

 reduce incidental mortality or encourage any in-season management of its quota- 

 based system. Part of the reason for this will be the sheer volume of information 

 generated by such a registration and reporting requirement. The MMEP proved 

 that it was unable to handle, process, and analyze that amount of information in 

 time to act upon it, even if a problem emerged. Therefore even though the bill 

 proposes Secretarial emergency regulatory authority, similar authority in the MMEP 

 was never used for purposes of in-season management or to address an emerging 

 incidental take problem in a fishery. 



The enforcement and penalties, while severe, appear to be aimed only at 

 administrative violations. Since Section 6 includes no prohibition of any kind on 

 the take of marine mammals-not for intentional takes, not for takes above PBR, 

 not for takes by vessels without a permit-the only violation for which a vessel 

 could be held liable and required to tie up at the dock would be failure to register, 

 display a decal, take an observer, or report a lethal take of a marine mammal. This 

 reflects exactly the enforcement problems that emerged from the MMEP. We can 

 spend lots of time and money tracking down vessel owners who didn't complete 

 their paperwork, but we question what that does to reduce marine mammal deaths 

 or encourage improved fishing practices. 



Education is a critical element in the equation. We can impose rigid 

 command and control regulatory programs on fishing operations, but without the 

 vast sums of money necessary to observe and patrol miles and miles of coastline 

 and ocean, it is doubtful whether such regimes could be effective in changing 

 behavior. The way to change the way people fish, or the way they view and treat 

 marine mammals, is by working with them. As a community who often have been 

 in the position of hammering on the fishing industry, we know whereof we speak. 

 Not only did we achieve tremendous strides in understanding each other's point of 

 view in the course of our negotiations, objective data from the MMEP illustrate the 

 difference that education can make in reducing marine mammal mortality. 

 Registration, reporting, and compliance were demonstrably higher-and shooting 

 mortality lower-in fisheries where industry associations conducted outreach 

 programs and where peer pressure was brought to bear. 



Observers unquestionably contribute to our understanding of not only the 

 level of incidental take, but also the way vessel/marine mammal interactions occur. 

 Their own statistically reliable data collection also provides a basis against which 

 we can verify self-reporting. Comparison of observer data to logbook data 

 indicates that on average mortality rates recorded in observer data were five to 

 nine times greater than those recorded in logbook data. However, what is 



