92 



ment toward preparing for the meeting to take place before the 1st 

 of July. 



We Avould specifically urge you to consider in such a letter en- 

 couraging him to take full advantage of the work which has been 

 done specifically, the Marine Mammal Commission and the Industry, 

 so that the program that he prepares can dovetail with the U.S. 

 program, other than conceivably their trying to reinvent the wheel, 

 when it has already been done. 



I feel that a letter from your committee would have a salutary 

 effect in moving them forward expeditiously. 



Mr. Leggett. Very good. We will do that. 



Mr. Kaufmann. Thank you. 



Any move by the Congress to reduce the strength of the present 

 law will obviously weaken the hand of the U.S. delegations working 

 on both the IATTC and bilateral arenas. We have commented at 

 earlier healings before this committee of the negative effect U.S. 

 Government foot dragging on enforcement of the MM PA tuna/ 

 porpoise protection provisions has had on U.S. efforts to achieve a 

 10-year moratorium on commercial whaling at the IWC meetings. 



With respect to the proposed Department of Commerce tuna/ 

 porpoise fishing regulations for 1977, we support the Environmental 

 Defense Fund's December 17, 1976, Opening Brief and Exceptions 

 to the Recommended Decision of the ALJ, dated January 28, 1977. 



However, the Connecticut Cetacean Society believes that no per- 

 mits should be issued this year allowing incidental take of porpoise 

 and the Fund for Animals maintains that the quota should be 

 drastically reduced this year in order to move rapidly and signifi- 

 cantly towards the goal of almost zero mortality. 



We share Dr. Norris' view that the 1977 fishing regulations should 

 be designed to reward boats with low porpoise mortality and penalize 

 boats with high porpoise mortality. We believe the majority of the 

 skippers would support this concept. 



We are very pleased with the tuna's industry commitment to 

 provide a purse seiner available year around to support research and 

 development work. 



This decision is a major step forward. The scientific workshop 

 being organized by the Marine Mammal Commission is also very 

 constructive. Both of these actions are responsive to recommendations 

 we have been making for several years. 



The third positive development is the highly successful Elizabeth 

 C.J. behavioral cruise which clearly demonstrated that a skillful 

 crew with the most advanced gear can bring mortality rates down 

 to 0.005 porpoise killed, per ton of yellowfin tuna as compared to the 

 1975 fleet average 400 times greater. 



But this is no time for complacency. We are only now beginning 

 to make some progress because of continuing pressure from envi- 

 ronmental groups and Federal court decisions. If the Act or regula- 

 tions are weakened, industry and government will revert back to 

 their original attitude that the problem of porpoise kill will go away 

 and not have to be solved. 



We regret that pressures are apparently being brought to bear 

 on Congress to weaken the act by amendment. We think this is an 



