117 



need to amend the law for more permanent relief will undoubtedly 

 be obviated by the administrative determination which is expected 

 any day now from the Director of the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, Mr. Schoning. It is all but certain — based on the recom- 

 mendation of the administrative law judge — that the 1977 regula- 

 tions will be acceptable to the industry, and we are hopeful that 

 they will be acceptable to environmentalists as well. 



I move on now through the statement. 



It is interesting to note that last year approximately 20 of the 

 boats were so successful in catching tuna without killing porpoise 

 that if their level of expertise had existed throughout the fleet, only 

 perhaps as few as 10,000 or less porpoises would have died. As it 

 was, between 84,000 and 112,000 porpoises were killed, with only a 

 few boats responsible for a disproportionate amount of the kill. 



And here we are already corrected. According to NMFS testimony 

 earlier today, approximately 104.000 porpoises were killed last year 

 by the U.S. fleet in the 10-month season before the quota was met. 

 That is an annual rate of 130.000, incidentally. 



Clearly the answer is to be found in a well-integrated training, 

 gear modification, and incentive program, rather than in special in- 

 terest legislation to amend the law. Industry self-policing to elimi- 

 nate incompetent skippers and ill-equioped or unsuitable fishing 

 boats alone will reduce mortality tremendously. 



Then I have dealt in several paragraphs with why I think, at least 

 in the short run, the question of the transfer of the U.S. fleet to for- 

 eign flags is an unrealistic threat. In the long run it may be possible, 

 but in the short run I think it is necessary to read them over to the 

 committee, in light of the chairman's earlier emphatic remarks on 

 the subject. 



Looking toward the future, all parties of interest recognize that 

 the foreign take problem is a serious one. It is only with regulation 

 of all tuna vessels, both foreign and domestic, that this problem cnn 

 ultimately be resolved satisfactorily. At this moment, approximately 

 70 to 75 percent of all porpoises killed incidental to commercial tuna 

 operations are killed by U.S.-flag vessels. 



Those were last year's figures. Obviously it is not true of the U.S. 

 boats at this exact moment, since they are not fishing for porpoise, 

 but it was the 1976 annual figure or the 1975 annual figure. 



However, as vessel technologv is transferred and as U.S. regula- 

 tory efforts under the MMPA' become successful, this ratio is bound 

 to change. Legislation already on the books— both the MMPA and 

 the Pelly amendment to the Fishermen's Protective Act— provide 

 agencies of this government with the power to require the same 

 standards of foreign boats that we do of our own vessels if they are 

 to maintain the United States as a market. . ,. 



I would summarize the rest of this paragraph by saying that tins 

 committee heard this morning from Mr. Brewer, the general counsel 

 of NOAA, that the National Marine Fisheries Service is basically 

 not enforcing the import regulations of the act, or is enforcing them 

 on a pro forma basis only. _ . 



It is in this international arena that Congress should now be to- 

 ff its attention, with questions on how forcefully the mterna- 



cusm fe 



