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My bill is not Mr. Bilirakis' bill, which seeks to provide protec- 

 tion for our dolphins. I am a co-sponsor of his bill. However, what 

 we try and do in my bill is put a recognition on the fact that States 

 like Florida have taken extra provisions to describe certain speci- 

 fied areas done on a scientific basis as sanctuaries for certain types 

 of marine resources. In some cases we call them aquatic preserves. 

 We also have other labels for other types of water bodies. These are 

 places where we do not allow normal commercial fishing to go and 

 we have special rules in order that stocks can be replenished. It is 

 a very basic simple concept and, frankly, it works quite well if we 

 allow it to work. 



We are asking that States that do this and demonstrate that 

 they have created these types of special sanctuary areas or reserve 

 areas, be allowed to do that and protect those areas from other ac- 

 tivities which might be permitted under a Federal permit granted 

 by the National Marine Fisheries Service under the marine mam- 

 mal process. 



The concern is: that we would be able to declare all of Florida 

 off limits and nobody would be able to catch dolphins in Florida 

 and that would destroy the industry because that is where, in fact, 

 a great number of dolphins for display are caught. That is not what 

 this is about and that is not what we are trying to do at all. We 

 are trying to make sure that there is protection in those areas 

 where dolphins do congregate, and these are not migratory dol- 

 phins, these are not the true Atlantic dolphin that swim up and 

 down the coast, these are the dolphins that basically like it in Flor- 

 ida and live there and don't leave. They have resettled there as it 

 were. And they deal in regions. We have regions such as Charlotte 

 Harbor which many of you have heard me speak about before, 

 where we found we were taking too many dolphins and depleting 

 the stock. And wisely the Marine Mammal Service stopped, the Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service issued a moratorium on captures 

 while we studied the matter further. And in fact it was their own 

 study that showed us that we were having a depletion problem. 



Interestingly enough, the State of Florida had already created a 

 series of regulations that said these types of water bodies are very 

 important to Florida for reestablishing our stocks, and we shouldn't 

 be allowing commercial taking of all kinds of fish and mammals in 

 that area; in fact, we need to protect other things including 

 manatees, a whole other series of issues. 



And Florida has been very responsible. To come along with a 

 Federal law that undercuts that responsibility, in my view is an 

 error. And that is what my legislation seeks to correct, to allow 

 States that have done something responsible to continue to do that 

 responsible thing. 



I don't believe there are any injured parties in this legislation. 

 There are plenty of places to capture dolphins in Florida that are 

 not in aquatic preserves, more than enough to take care of all the 

 requirements that are out there right now, I understand. 



The situation is actually serious enough in the Gulf Coast area 

 that there has been a moratorium on dolphin takings, because we 

 have had an outbreak as we had off New Jersey some years ago, 

 we don't understand it yet but there is a threat. And wisely there 

 has been a moratorium. 



