agreement. A further agreement could avoid the creation of government bureaucracy 

 and waste. 



I am concerned that the display and scientific community, which has played an 

 invaluable role in educating the public about marine mammals, could become over- 

 regulated. Perhaps amending the MMPA to create clear jurisdictions would be the 

 best course of action. 



Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the outcome of these proceedings and the intro- 

 duction of reauthorization legislation. 



Mr. Studds. We will hear from our colleague, a distinguished 

 former member of this Committee, the gentleman from Florida, Mr. 

 Goss. Welcome. 



STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN PORTER GOSS, A U.S. 

 REPRESENTATIVE FROM FLORIDA 



Mr. Goss. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can say after listening to 

 the introductory remarks that I am pleased to be back in the room. 

 I think that the mood of this Committee has always been one of 

 vision, tempered with a little humor. And I am pleased to see that 

 it still laughs and I hope it does throughout this hearing. 



I would like to ask that my written statement be accepted into 

 the record and I will try to abbreviate the salient points. 



Mr. Studds. Without objection. 



Mr. Goss. Thank you very much. The purpose of me being here 

 really is to ask that you all consider folding into the legislation that 

 you have before you my Bill H.R. 585, which is mistitled The Ma- 

 rine Mammal Public Display Reform Act, and that is my 

 misstatement. It is in fact titled that. It really should be called the 

 Marine Mammal Capture Reform Act because it goes to the ques- 

 tion of capture and how we do it, rather than to the question of 

 display. The whole Free Willy argument, which was eluded to in 

 opening remarks, is not what this legislation is about. 



I want to point out that this is not a new idea that I am going 

 to explain in a moment. It is one that has been around for a while 

 and I think it is particularly cogent to the fact that there are dif- 

 ferences in our resources in this country. In some areas that are 

 blessed with resources we do a very good job of trying to provide 

 appropriate stewardship for them. And that is the case with dol- 

 phins in Florida. 



The attractions industry was very alarmed when we first started 

 talking about this, probably because of the title rather than the 

 content of our Act. We have tried to alleviate their concerns. I have 

 got to say that nobody in their right mind would think that Florida 

 is not attractions-friendly. Florida is perhaps the most attractions- 

 oriented State in the union. I would certainly say that Florida dol- 

 phins are swimming all over the world at this point. We know they 

 have been captured and exported to various exotic foreign destina- 

 tions, including Baltimore and places like that, but also out of the 

 country. 



We even export mice. We got them from California, but we ran 

 them through Orlando and now they are trying to export them to 

 Virginia, I understand. So we are very much in the business of at- 

 tractions, and I hope that if anyone still has concerns they will lis- 

 ten closely and read my remarks because we have addressed all of 

 the areas that they were concerned about. 



