167 



Dr. White. "Well, the regulations are operative now. We are wait- 

 ing for the applications from the industry, and we expect, probably 

 sometime around the middle of April, the vessels will be able to go to 

 sea. 



Mr. Brewer. May I comment further on that, Mr. Chairman? 

 Mr. Leggett. Mr. Brewer. 



Mr. Brewer. Not only do we have the waiting period that Dr. 

 White referred to, but we also have the order of the Court of Ap- 

 peals of the District of Columbia which requires applications be sub- 

 mitted with supporting material. 



The presumption is that the court wants to review each of these 

 applications on its merits, and exercise a veto power if it wants to 

 do so. 



Mr. Leggett. How many will it be? 



Mr. Brewer. The American Tunaboat Association applied for a 

 permit. But the individual vessels must also ask for certificates of 

 inclusion, so there will be perhaps 130 of those for the various 

 vessels. 



Mr. Leggett. What is there to look at? They apply for taking 

 59,000 incidental take, and they list 130 vessels which are docu- 

 mented in the Department of Commerce, so what is the issue there? 



Mr. Brewer. I imagine the court wants to be sure that we are com- 

 plying with the law, but except for the bare words of the order, we 

 have no advice on what it is looking for. 



Mr. Leggett. Is there any discretion visited by law, as far as you 

 know, with the court in this regard? 



Mr. Brewer. None whatsoever, Mr. Chairman, but of course the 

 court has the power to order us to do that. 



Mr. Leggett. Well, Mr. Brewer, they can order you to do any- 

 thing. 



Now, if the court did not request that this one application with 

 130 boats' names attached be submitted to it, how much time would 

 it take to implement and make operative your regulations? 



Mr. Brewer. Well, in the absence of any action by the court which 

 may delay the issuance of the permit and the certificate of inclusion, 

 the principal time limitation is the 30 day statutory comment period. 

 We must publish the application for a permit and 30 days must 

 elapse for public coment. Thereafter we may proceed with issuance 

 of the permit and certificates of inclusion. If the Chairman would 



like . i 



Mr. Leggett. Now, you have had a comment period on the regu- 

 lations ? 



Mr. Brewer. Yes. 



Mr. Leggett. God. Have you had a comment period! You have 

 been going through hearings for 2 months or more. 



Mr. Brewer. There is a further limitation in the statute. 



Mr. Leggett. Why? 



Mr. Brewer. Because the statute tells us what we have to do. 



Mr. Leggett. Whv? 



Mr. Brewer. So the public can comment on the request of an ap- 

 plicant to conduct a fisherv and his general character. There are 

 grounds set forth in the statute for that comment period. 



