64 



the fishing industry in our region and in our State and nationally, 

 too. 



Thank you very much. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Kaelin follows:] 



Prepared Statement of Jeff Kaelin 



Senator Kerry, members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to dis- 

 cuss the pending reauthorization of the Marine Manunal F*rotection Act with you 

 today. 



I am Jeff Kaelin, the Executive Director of the Maine Sardine Council. Maine's 

 sardine industry consists of four companies operating six factories located between 

 Bath and Lubec, Maine. These factories utilize about 35 thousand metric tons of 

 herring each year to produce more than $40 million worth of canned sardines and 

 other canned herring products. 



Today, I am also here as the president of the Associated Fisheries of Maine. This 

 organization is an umbrella group of about 50 fishing-related businesses, and sev- 

 eral fisheries associations, operating in our state. 



Finally, I also appear before you today as the Government Relations Coordinator 

 for the Maine Aquaculture Association. Maine's aguaculture industry is becoming a 

 stable industry and has terrific potential for growth. 



Beginning in February, participated in discussions between fisheries groups and 

 environmental organizations in an effort to provide Congress with an alternative to 

 the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) proposed regime to govern the 

 interactions between marine mammals and conmiercial fishermen after September 

 30th. All of the fishing groups that I represent and work with want to be part of 

 a process that ensures both the viability of marine mammal stocks and fisheries in 

 our region. 



My primary motivation for getting involved in this process, in behalf of the Maine 

 Sardine Council, was to work towards the development of a program that would not 

 threaten to shut down our Category III herring fishery due to any impacts that New 

 England's ink gillnet fleet might be having on the regions harbor porpoise popu- 

 lation. 



The NMFS' proposed regime would have made it possible for any fishery 

 "nteracting" with a marine mammal stock of concern — like, potentially, the harbor 

 porpoise — to be shut down once a particular "potential biological removal" level of 

 take was reached. The possibility that Maine's nerring fishery, recognized by the In- 

 terim Exemption Program during the past five years as offering not more than a 

 "remote likelihood" of taking any marine mammal, might be shut down due to prob- 

 lems associated with another gear type just didn't make sense to us. 



The Maine Sardine Council has signed on to the negotiated proposal for a marine 

 mammal research and conservation program, which I will call the "critical stock re- 

 gime", because we believe that this possibility has been eliminated. Even though our 

 fishery would potentially be a focus of a Conservation Team which may be estab- 

 lished to consider the viability of the east coast harbor porpoise population, we are 

 confident ihat our fishery will be recognized as already operating at an insignificant 

 level of incidental mortality and serious injury rate of these animals. 



The Associated Fisheries of Maine also supports the negotiated critical stock re- 

 gime because of the fact that its two member associations most likely to be impacted 

 by changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act this year — the Maine Sardine 

 (Jouncil and the Maine Gillnetters Association — have agreed to do so. 



While I do not directly represent the Maine Gillnetters Association I worked close- 

 ly with that organization during the negotiation process. At the close of the discus- 

 sions, the Maine Gillnetters Association agreed to support the critical stock regime. 



In my view they took this position primarily because the Conservation Team con- 

 cept represents partnership between government and industry which is intended to 

 develop strategies to mitigate takes while allowing for the continued viability of a 

 fishery. A partnership like this has not existed during most of the Interim Exemp- 

 tion Program. „ „ j 



During the past two or three years, a "Harbor Porpoise Working Groups —made 

 up of members of the fishing and environmental community in New England, along 

 with government and university representatives, and with support from the New 

 England Fishery Management Council— has been meeting to discuss and develop 

 methods to reduce the rate of take of harbor porpoise in the sink gillnet fishery and 

 examine the status of the region's harbor porpoise population. 



Unfortunately, it was not until very recently that the NMFS began to pursue a 

 policy of woricing with the gillnet industry to help to develop alternatives which 



