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Statement by Peter L. Tyack for a Hearing on the Reauthorization 

 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act conducted by the 

 Subcommittee on Environment and Natural Resources of the 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries of the U.S. House of 

 Representatives 



Comments on permits for scientific research 



I am a biologist on the scientific staff at the Woods Hole 

 Oceanographic Institution, a private non-profit institution for 

 research and education in oceanography. For the past two 

 decades, I have studied the acoustic communication and social 

 behavior of whales and dolphins in the wild. Since these 

 animals are regulated by the National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 I will comment more upon this agency than the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service, which regulates several other species. Conservation 

 biology is not my profession, but I hope that I can contribute 

 an independent scientific perspective. I will argue that 

 regulatory effort should be proportionate to risk to animal 

 populations, and that ecosystem-oriented management must be 

 pursued more vigorously. 



Marine mammal populations in U.S. waters are primarily 

 threatened by unintentional effects of human activities. 

 Overfishing may deplete marine mammal prey enough to reduce the 

 carrying capacity of the environment. Chemical and noise 

 pollution degrade the quality of marine mammal habitats. Ships 

 and fishing gear kill or injure marine mammals by accident. 

 These are serious policy issues, and we should not be distracted 

 elsewhere. However, as the 1984/85 Annual Report on the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act (MMPAi puts it: "One of the most extensive 

 administrative programs in the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 is the permit system that authorizes the taking of marine 

 mammals for scientific research and public display." This 

 regulatory focus on scientific research and public display is 

 completely out of balance with the relative risk these 

 activities pose to marine mammals. It also penalizes the very 

 activities that may benefit marine mammals. 



Let me give an example from the most endangered baleen whale — 

 the northern right whale. Most of the 300 right whales left in 

 the western North Atlantic carry scars from vessel collision or 

 entanglement with fishing gear, and more adults die from vessel 

 collision and net entanglement than any other known causes. 

 Even though ships predictably kill these whales. Federal actions 

 locate shipping channels in the middle of dense concentrations 

 of feeding whales. Under current regulations, there are no 

 preventive controls on ships or fishing gear most likely to kill 

 or injure the last remaining right whales. In contrast, more 

 and more controls are being placed on the scientists who 

 document these problems. A group of biologists on Cape Cod risk 

 their own lives to save entanaled whales. Since thev aDDroach 



