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ANSWERS IN RESPONSE TO REPRESENTATIVE HAMBURGH'S 



QUESTIONS CONCERNING PINNIPED INTERACTIONS - 



AUGUST 4, 1993 HEARING ON H.R. 2760 



MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1993 



JEFF KAELIN, GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COORDINATOR 

 MAINE AQUACULTURE ASSOCIATION 



September 6, 1993 



Should H.R. 2760 specif leally prohibit intentional shooting of 

 marine mammals? 



The U.S. commercial fishing industry has generally agreed to 

 a prohibition on shooting marine mammals, during the course of the 

 wild harvesting of fish, because fisheries interactions with marine 

 mammals in these circumstances are accidental. Commercial and 

 recreational fishermen need to retain the authority to nonlethally 

 deter marine mammals to protect against damage to gear and catch, 

 however. Intentional lethal takes of marine mammals in wild 

 harvest fisheries are so infrequent that a prohibition on shooting 

 will have no significant negative impact on the industry. 



In the marine finfish aquaculture industry/ where the 

 predation of cultured fish by individual pinnipeds from robust seal 

 populations can be a significant economic problem, intentional 

 lethal takes of certain marine mammals have occurred. It is very 

 important that the MMPA reauthorization process recognizes that the 

 intentional lethal taking of pinnipeds is an important management 

 tool for salmon farmers which needB to be retained. 



Intentional lethal taking is, and should be, used only as a 

 last reaort - after all other nonlethal meanB of deterrence have 

 failed. We believe that takes should be below a "potential 

 biological removal" level to insure that the viability of the 

 marine mammal stock involved is not threatened. Existing law 

 provides for this lethal take option. There is no scientific 

 evidence that would indicate that the intentional lethal taking of 

 precatory pinnipeds from robust populations - to protect against 

 damage to gear and catch in the marine finfish aquaculture industry 

 - should now be prohibited. 



Many witnesses commented on the provisions in H.R. 2760 to 

 establish the pinniped Interaction Task Force. Would anyone like 

 to comment further on: 



1) the adequacy of these provisions to address interactions of 

 commercial fishermen, fisheries and pinnipeds; 



While H.R. 2760 does recognize that costly predation from 

 robust seal stocks is occurring - by calling for a Pinniped 

 Interaction Task Force - the proposal doeB not specifically 



