104 



Perhaps the greatest breakthrough off the Elizabeth OJ. ciwise 

 was that a lot of public and private understanding and communica- 

 tion grqw out of it, not just between fishermen and scientists, but also 

 among the industry, the environmentalists, the Government, and the 

 public. I think this is going to be of inestimable and growing bene- 

 fit, 



I have a brief remark, and I cannot speak for the entire scientific 

 team; everyone who has been out there has a year's worth of what 

 they would like to do. I would like to share what I would like to 

 do. 



I think I am really interested in some more understanding of the 

 tuna porpoise relationship. It looks like a feeding symbiosis. It looks 

 like the tuna follow the porpoise because they feed on the same size 

 prey. 



One can actually see that with the porpoise feeding on the top and 

 the tuna feeding underneath, this increases the efficiency. I think 

 the porpoise are passive partners in this arrangement. 



I would like to work on Dr. Norris' suggestions that ways be de- 

 veloped to herd porpoises out of the net before backdown, to be used 

 in emergencies when broken winches or other delays allow the net 

 to start collapsing. 



I would like to apply my trainer's eye to totally naive animals in 

 the nets, because we have special techniques in captivity for handling 

 panicky porpoises which might be applicable. I do not see any. 



I would like to observe hand-release of animals that do get en- 

 tangled, if only to pass on what trainers know about not handling 

 a porpoise where it is ticklish. I was interested — and this is purely 

 research and not applied research in the chance to look at subgroups 

 in the net ; you can see the mothers, fathers, in their groups of three 

 or five. I would like to get another look at that, 



And as consultant to the Porpoise Kescue Foundation, whatever 

 work that I am going to do this year, I would hope to contribute 

 advice on industrywide training in porpoise handling. 



Thank you. 



Mr. Leggett. Thank you very much. 



You indicate that we are getting more and more sets with zero 

 take, which is significant. 



Did you come to any conclusions as to the reasons why, why more 

 zero sets are not made? If this is your only experience out there 



Ms. Pryor. I would like to look at some sets where things did not 

 go perfectly before answering that question. I could only guess now. 

 ' Mr. Leggett. Did you look at the logs that are available from your 

 observers ? 



Ms. Pryor. I have not looked at the observer logs. 



Mr. Leggett. It might be helpful in continuing your research if you 



do that. 



Ms. Prior. Yes; I think it is an excellent idea. 



Mr. LEGGETr. And perhaps we could come up with some conclu- 

 sions. 



Mr. Mulligan, we will note you are leaving. 



Thank you very much. 



