MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION ACT 

 PART III 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1994 



House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Envi- 

 ronmental and Natural Resources, Committee on 

 Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 



Washington, DC. 



The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30, in room 1334, 

 Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Gerry E. Studds [chairman 

 of the Subcommittee] presiding. 



Present: Representatives Studds, Hochbrueckner, Pallone, 

 Gilchrest, Reed, Hamburg, Eshoo, Ortiz, Saxton, Cunningham, and 

 Young. 



Staff Present: Karen Steuer, Deputy Staff Director; Tod Preston, 

 Professional Staff; Marvadell Zeeb, Staff Assistant; Harry Bur- 

 roughs, Minority Staff Director; Cynthia Wilkinson, Minority Chief 

 Counsel; Margherita Woods, Minority Staff Assistant; and Rod 

 Moore, Minority Professional Staff. 



STATEMENT OF HON. GERRY E. STUDDS, A U.S. REPRESENTA- 

 TIVE FROM MASSACHUSETTS, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMIT- 

 TEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES 



Mr. Studds. The Subcommittee will come to order. I think we 

 should announce the reappointment to the 104th Congress of the 

 ranking member of this Committee, the gentleman from Texas. Un- 

 fortunately, the other 49 States have elections and — we got another 

 one? Also? No. 



This morning, although the issues we are going to cover have not 

 been dealt with at our hearings to date on the reauthorization of 

 the Marine Mammal Protection Act, one of them has been dis- 

 cussed in just about every household that has seen "Free Willy": 

 the capture and public display of marine mammals. In fact, it is 

 this issue that has brought one of our colleagues from Florida here 

 to testify this morning. We were originally scheduled to have two 

 of our colleagues from Florida with us; however, Mr. Bilirakis has 

 called with his apologies, he is ill and unable to attend, but we will 

 indeed enter his testimony into the record. I would like to point out 

 to our colleague from Alaska how impressed we are that we are 

 hearing from two members from his side of the aisle on the need 

 for more consideration for Flipper. 



And I also point out that the gentleman, as we will shortly learn, 

 I fear, is armed beyond usual this morning. In the traditional 

 hands-on style of this Committee's hearings, we had intended to 

 bring dolphins into the hearing room this morning as we discussed 



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