36 



Dr. Foster. Yes. Now they pay $30, and we have explored the 

 possibility of raising that anywhere from making it $50 to anything 

 else. 



Senator Stevens. How about an assessment of about $10 on 

 every one of the environmental group members that wants to see 

 a zero take on marine mammals? The environmental community 

 does not pay anything to support this program. 



Dr. Foster. I think that is something that you could look at. 



Senator Stevens. Something worth exploring? 



Dr. Foster. Why not? I am sure they will be willing to pay. 



Senator Stevens. I will thank them when they get here. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Senator Kerry. Thank you very much. Senator. 



The working group proposal, the industry conservation proposal 

 puts a requirement on you to publish a critical and noncritical 

 stock list within 45 days of enactment, and a final rule within 90 

 days. Can that be met? 



Dr. Foster. Well, 5 years ago, when I was here, I would have 

 said quickly, of course, it can. Well, this time I do not think it can. 

 We are looking right now at the deadlines. We think that, to be 

 perfectly reasonable, there would have to be some extensions to 

 those deadlines. 



Senator Kerry. To which ones? 



Dr. Foster. Well, to all of them. 



Senator Kerry. So, you are not able to get a critical stock assess- 

 ment, even a basic critical stock assessment within 45 days? 



Dr. Foster. Speak up, you are the one who knows this. 



Dr. Eagle. Well, I do not think we could do that and have it pub- 

 lished in the Federal Register within 45 days. It would have to go 

 through several layers of clearance. 



Dr. Foster. We are just trying to be reasonable on our deadlines 

 for once, instead of getting trapped. 



Senator Kerry. So, the deadlines are something that we are 

 going to have to look at carefully? 



Dr. Foster. Yes. But I think it is not a major problem coming 

 up with something. 



Senator Kerry. The working group also proposes, as opposed to 

 having the universal registration, to rely on the data bases of the 

 existing Federal, State tribal fishing permit systems. They would 

 only require a separate marine mammal system, where those sys- 

 tems do not exist. What problems do you see in that regime, if any? 

 Why is that not acceptable? 



Dr. Foster. Well, we do — ^Tom, would you like to go through 

 that? 



Dr. Eagle. First of all, the data bases are set up for different 

 purposes. In fact, we have explored using some of those. The people 

 who set up the interim exemption program explored using those 

 data back when we first set this up, and the level of data were in- 

 consistent with what we needed. Therefore, to adapt those data 

 bases would have cost more than to develop our own. 



Consequently, we have our own data base right now. We have 

 been operating this system for a number of years, and have a good 

 program in place. 



