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The Marine Mammal Commission was directed to develop and make available to 

 the Secretary and to the public recommended guidelines to govern the incidental 

 taking of marine mammals in the course of conmiercial fishmg operations, other 

 than mose subject to section 104(h) (2) of the Act, after October 1, 1993. The amend- 

 ment specified that the guidelines: 



"(A) Tbe designed to provide a scientific rationale and basis for determining how 

 many marine mammals may be incidentally taken under a regime to be adopted to 

 govern such taking after October 1, 1993; 



"(B) be based on sound principles of wildlife management, and be consistent with 

 and in furtherance of the purposes and policies set forth in this Act; and 



"(C) to the maximum extent practicable, include as factors to be considered and 

 utilized in determining permissible levels of such taking — 



"(i) the status and trends of the affected marine mammal population stocks; 



"(ii) the abundance and annual net recjniitment of such stocks; 



"(iii) the level of confidence in the knowledge of the affected stocks; and 



"(iv) Ae extent to which incidental taking will likely cause or contribute to their 

 decline or prevent their recovery to optimum sustainable population levels." 



The Commission, in consultation with its Committee oi Scientific Advisors, devel- 

 oped and, in January 1990, provided draft guidelines to the National Marine Fish- 

 eries Service and other interested parties, including fisheries groups and environ- 

 mental organizations, for review and comment. The guidelines were revised and fi- 

 nalized, taking into account comments on the draft. The recommended guidelines 

 were provided to the National Marine Fisheries Service in July 1990. The Commis- 

 sion also prepared and provided the Service a summary of the substantive com- 

 ments it had received on the draft guidelines and an explanation of how those com- 

 ments had been addressed. 



In its recommended guidelines, the Commission noted, among other things, that 

 Congress had directed that the guidelines be based upon sound principles of wildlife 

 management, and be consistent with and in furtherance of the purposes and policies 

 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In this context, the Commission called atten- 

 tion to the "New Principles for the Conservation of Wild Living Resources" formu- 

 lated during two 1975 workshops sponsored by the President's Council on Environ- 

 mental QuEuity, the World Wildlife Fund-U.S., the Ecological Society of America, the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and the International Union lor the Conservation of Na- 

 ture and Natural Resources (Holt, S. J. and L. M. Talbot. 1978. New Principles for 

 the Conservation of Wild Living Resources. Wildlife Monographs No. 59. 33 pp.). 



After noting both the New Principles and the intents and provisions of the Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act, the Commission expressed the view that it would be appro- 

 priate in certain cases to allow the incidental taking of depleted as well as non-de- 

 pleted species and population stocks of marine mammals and that the general objec- 

 tives of the regime to govern marine mammal-fisheries interactions after 1 Octooer 

 1993 should be to: 



1. maintain the fiillest possible range of management options for future genera- 

 tions; 



2. restore depleted species and populations of marine mammals to their optimum 

 sustainable level with no significant time delays; 



3. reduce the incidental take to as near zero as practicable; and 



4. as possible, minimize hardships to commercial fisheries while achieving objec- 

 tives 1, 2, and 3. 



The Commission recommended that the Regime to Govern the Taking of Marine 

 Mammals Incidental to Commercial Fishing Operations after 1 October 1993: 



• reaffirm the Marine Mammal Protection Act's goal of maintaining marine 

 mammal populations within their optimum sustainable population range; 



• reaffirm the Act's goal to reduce the incidental kill and serious injury of marine 

 mammals in the course of commercial fishing operations to insignificant levels ap- 

 proaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate; 



• reinstate the substantive, although not necessarily the procedural, require- 

 ments of the general permit and small take provisions of the Marine Mammal Pro- 

 tection Act for marine mammal populations known or reasonably believed to be 

 within their optimum sustainable population range; 



• allow the incidental take of marine mammals listed as endangered or threat- 

 ened under the Endangered Species Act or depleted under the Marine Mammal P'ro- 

 tection Act when: (1) a recovery plan or conservation plan, including an implementa- 

 tion plan, has been developed, adopted, and put into place; (2) the authorized level 

 of take, by itself and in combination with other sources of mortality, is not likely 

 to cause or contribute to a further population decline or cause more than a ten per- 

 cent increase in the estimated time it would take for the affected species or popu- 

 lation to recover to its maximum net productivity level; (3) ongoing and planned 



