83 



12 



may be authorized if it is incidental to, and will not interfere 

 with, the underlying enhancement purpose. 



An additional problem with this proposal is tying the 

 exception to issuance of a final depletion finding. While the 

 Commission does not support this proposed amendment in any form, 

 at the absolute minimum, it should be revised along the lines of 

 section 102(d)(1) of the Act, setting publication of the proposed 

 depletion finding as the cutoff point by which the marine mammal 

 must be in captivity. Without such a requirement, there is a 

 risk that the publication of a proposed depletion finding will 

 set off a rush to capture animals from that stock before the 

 determination is final. 



The American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums 

 also advocates exempting Marine Mammal Protection Act permitting 

 actions from the requirements of the National Environmental 

 Policy Act. 



By and large, marine mammal permitting actions do not have 

 significant environmental impacts. As such, the National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration and the Fish and Wildlife Service 

 have "categorically excluded" the issuance and modification of 

 these permits from the general National Environmental Policy Act 

 provisions requiring preparation of an Environmental Impact 

 Statement (EIS) and/or an Environmental Assessment (EA) . 

 Pursuant to the categorical exclusions, most permits may be 

 issued without conducting an assessment of their impacts. 



Some permits, however, may fall within exceptions to the 

 categorical exclusions because of the scope, novelty, 

 uncertainty, or cumulative impacts of the requested activities. 

 In such instances, preparation of an EA or an EIS is required. 

 While some may view this requirement as a needless obstacle to 

 permit issuance, preparation of such a document in those 

 circumstances serves a valuable function. The required analyses 

 not only assess the potential impacts of proposed actions, but 

 identify alternatives that may be environmentally preferable. 



It should also be noted that compliance with the National 

 Environmental Policy Act, at least for most permits, is not very 

 burdensome. Of the hundreds of permits issued by the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, only a handful have required 

 preparation of an environmental document — and these generally 

 were for relatively large scale activities, e..g. the Heard Island 

 sound transmission experiment, the Minerals Management Service's 

 bowhead whale research program, the swim-with-the-dolphin 

 program, and a proposal to capture up to 100 and remove 10 killer 

 whales from Alaska. Only two permits issued by the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service have prompted the preparation of an EA and none 

 have required the preparation of an EIS. 



