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during the review. The comment period for these proposed 

 regulations closed on January 28, 1994. We received well over 

 150 comment letters representing a wide range of views. 



While a thorough analysis of these comments will take some time, 

 several recurring themes are clear and reflect the many strongly 

 held and widely divergent opinions of various groups and 

 interests, some of which are represented at this hearing today. 

 Many of these issues concerning marine mammal public display and 

 scientific research have become increasingly controversial, 

 particularly in the last ten years. This Committee and Congress 

 addressed several of these issues in the 1988 amendments to the 

 law; including requiring education or conservation programs, 

 public access, and regularly scheduled hours for the public 

 display of captive marine mammals. And, these same 1988 

 amendments also required that scientific research involving 

 marine mammals must be bona fide, avoid unnecessary duplication, 

 and involve lethal methods only where there is no alternative. 

 Today, several public display and scientific research issues are 

 again before this Committee in an even more intense and 

 fundamental manner . 



I believe it would be most helpful to this Committee if I address 

 briefly a few of the issues that have arisen in the last several 

 months in response to the proposed revised permit regulations and 

 recent litigation. I expect these issues to be the focus of 



