12 



The display industry contends that dolphins are migratory, and therefore a 

 "State's rights" amendment to the MMPA is inappropriate. While it's true that At- 

 lantic dolphins are migratory, pods in the Gulf of Mexico tend to be region-specific. 



Another contention is that H.R. 585 would burden interstate commerce. While any 

 State which attempted to limit dolphin captures to facilities within State boundaries 

 would violate interstate commerce rules (and any State veto issued under such cir- 

 cumstances would be invalid), that is not the type of "protection" provided for in this 

 bill. 



Finally, the argument is made that there is no basis for the belief that dolphins 

 do not do well in public display institutions. In terms of H.R. 585, this is also an 

 irrelevant argument. States such as Florida have attempted to close off certain 

 State waters for economic and environmental reasons, not because of any aversion 

 to public display facilities. In fact, Florida has more public display facilities than 

 almost any other State! 



I am aware that there has been a voluntary moratorium on dolphin captures in 

 the Gulf of Mexico since 1990. NMFS has asked that this moratorium be adhered 

 to while it updates its quota system, and while it investigates the so-far unexplained 

 die-offs that have been occurring among the dolphin populations in the Gulf. 



Yet this is no reason to avoid action. This year NMFS extended several capture 

 permits for Gulf waters. In addition, I am informed by that agency that the vol- 

 untary moratorium could be lifted as early as this year. 



The purpose of the Marine Mammal Protection Act is to protect marine mammals, 

 and if a State chooses to offer greater protection for dolphins within principals of 

 the MMPA, it should not be prevented from doing so. H.R. 585, which was originally 

 drafted with the assistance of the former chief counsel of the Marine Mammal Com- 

 mission, was drawn to protect dolphins and States' rights within narrow limits. 



I urge this Committee to adopt this simple, rational approach to additional ma- 

 rine mammal protection as it considers the reauthorization of the Marine Mammal 

 Protection Act. 



Mr. Studds. We thank you and we miss your constructive con- 

 tribution to this Committee and we are glad to have you partly 

 back. Are there any questions for the gentleman? If not, let me 

 again, I know that I speak for the staff as well, thank you for your 

 cooperation and we will do our best to do the right thing. 



Mr. Goss. I appreciate that, thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Studds. Thank you very much. While we bring forward the 

 remaining seven witnesses as a single panel, let me invite anybody 

 who needs a seat and can't find one, especially those of you who 

 have to write, are welcome to sit on this lower tier here and you 

 can take advantage of the reassembly a moment to do that. Anyone 

 is welcome to do that. 



If all seven of the remaining witnesses could come up as a single 

 panel, we would appreciate it. I apologize for some of our constric- 

 tions here. I think the staff has alerted you to our infamous 5- 

 minute rule. We are going to ask you to confine your oral state- 

 ments to no more than 5 minutes. Your written testimony will ap- 

 pear in its entirety in the record. And we will also apply the 5- 

 minute rule strictly to ourselves in our questioning. If you have not 

 seen this before, the lights there are somewhat barbaric. The yel- 

 low light will go on when you have one minute left and when the 

 red light goes on, you have concluded. We will, in fact, apply that 

 rule to ourselves as well, so you shouldn't feel bad as a public clam- 

 or for the Congress to apply all rules to itself. And we intend to 

 do precisely that. 



I would just add that we are under considerable time pressure. 

 The House is in session, we will probably be interrupted for votes 

 and we are going to try to move as rapidly as we can. 



We will begin with Dr. Nancy Foster, Deputy Assistant Adminis- 

 trator for Fisheries at NOAA, welcome. 



