MARINE MAMMAL PROTECTION OVERSIGHT 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1977 



House of Representatives, 

 Subcommittee on Fisheries and Wildlife 

 Conservation and the Environment of the 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 



Washington, D.C. 



The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 : 12 a.m., in room 

 1334, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Robert L. Leggett, 

 chairman of the subcommittee presiding. 



Mr. Leggett. The meeting of the Subcommittee on Fisheries and 

 Wildlife Conservation and the Environment will please come to 

 order. 



I have got an extensive statement that I want to read at this point, 

 to lay a foundation for these hearings, and we might as well begin. 



The Subcommittee on Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation and the 

 Environment is holding this oversight hearing this morning to assist 

 it, its members, and its staff in staying fully informed on recent and 

 continuing developments concerning the Marine Mammal Protection 

 Act and the tuna-porpoise conflict. 



To that end, we will be hearing from representatives of the Govern- 

 ment agencies concerned, the tuna industry and the tuna fleet, envi- 

 ronmentalists, and perhaps others not adequately categorized in the 

 above groups. 



This hearing continues the committee's exercise of its oversight 

 responsibilities in this area which in the 94th Congress included over- 

 sight hearings in May, 1975, on the administration, enforcement and 

 other implementation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and 

 oversight of the tuna-porpoise problem specifically last September, as 

 well as related hearings. 



It should go without saying that there will undoubtedly be more 

 oversight hearings, and perhaps legislative hearings as well, on this 

 subject before an adequate and equitable resolution of the problem is 

 behind us. 



At the risk of suboptimally using our time by covering terrain ex- 

 ceedingly familiar to most everyone here, I think it well for the 

 record to briefly review a number of developments which bring us to 

 this, the present juncture in our concerns. That which we sometimes 

 delicately refer to as the tuna-porpoise problem results from com- 

 mercial tuna purse seiners using the association of certain porpoise 

 with yellowfin tuna as an aid in locating and netting the tuna. 

 Thousands of porpoise die each year in American and foreign-flag 



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