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because their kidneys are not working as they should. At least FWS 

 has the raw data on walrus. There are no data or programs to 

 screen polar bears to know if levels of contaminants are going up 

 or down in those animals. We do not even have good data on the 

 number of polar bears in Alaska, Canada or Russia. 



As we all know, the health of marine mammals and of Alaska 

 Natives is inextricably tied to the health of the environment. 

 What is being done to the ocean in which these animals live? 

 Protecting marine mammals is the intent of the MMPA, but with our 

 oceans acting as dumping grounds or final repositories of what we 

 put in the air, these important species of mammals are being 

 contaminated. The minimal data we have tell us this; we need much 

 more, and tools to combat the pollution, if we are to manage 

 healthy stocks of all of the marine mammals. 



Suggested amendments to the MMPA . 



I have several suggestions to make to the Committee with 

 respect to changes in the MMPA. The first, and most important, is 

 one that I most strongly and respectfully recommend that the 

 Committee not do: make any amendment that will or could weaken the 

 current Native take exemption in section 101(b) of the Act. That 

 exemption has worked very well to date; it purposefully and 

 properly gives Alaska Natives the sole responsibility for 

 regulating their own take so long as it is not wasteful, provided 

 that a species is not found to be depleted; and it helps preserve 

 Native customs and traditions by allowing Natives to follow their 

 traditional practices free of intrusive and often inappropriate 

 federal regulation. 



I want to emphasize in this respect the concern of the entire 

 Native community that Congress not take any action that could have 

 negative ramifications for Native take in the future. This 

 includes proposals that would replace reliance on the concept of 

 Optimal Sustainable Population with new concepts or matrices to 

 evaluate the health of a species. At present, as with the entire 

 MMPA, the Native take exemption is premised on OSP as the measure 

 of the health of a species. Any effort to change this approach in 

 any context will undoubtably have the unintended effect of 

 establishing a precedent for using the new concept or matrix as a 

 basis for determining when it would be appropriate for the federal 

 government to regulate Native take. 



We also would view with concern any efforts to establish 

 acceptable levels of take of marine mammal populations. This may 

 well lead to actual allocation of marine mammal take among user 

 groups, which not only will mean the end of the Native take 

 exemption, but long and bitter fights over allocation that serve no 

 one's interests. 



I do have three suggestions to improve the MMPA from the 

 standpoint of Alaska Natives. First, as I have previously 

 discussed, the Native community is hard at work collecting data on 



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