47 



Depaetment of State, 

 Washington, D.C., Septembers, 1971. 

 Hon. Edwakd A. Gabmatz, 



Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, 

 House of Representatives, 

 Washington, D.C. 



Deab Mr. Chaibman : The Secretary has asked me to reply to your letters 

 of March 30 and April 30 requesting respectively the Department's views on 

 H.R. 6554 and H.R. 6558, identical bills "To protect ocean mammals from being 

 pursued, harassed, or killed ; and for other purposes." 



H.R. 6554 proposes that the Ck>ngress make a finding "that ocean mammals 

 are being ruthlessly . . . killed . . . [and] that many ocean mammals will become 

 rare, if not extinct, unless steps are taken to prevent their slaughter." On this 

 basis, the bill would declare it to be the public policy of the United States that 

 all ocean mammals should be protected from slaughter and that negotiations 

 should be undertaken with a view to obtaining a world-wide ban on the further 

 slaughter of such mammals. Further, the bill would express the sense of the Con- 

 gress that the Interim Convention on Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals, 

 1957, should be permitted to expire in 1976 and that the Secretary of State should 

 initiate negotiations with the other parties to the Convention and any other 

 interested states for the purpose of obtaining international agreement to ban 

 all killing of North Pacific fur seals, whether at sea or on land. 



The Department recommends against the enactment of H.R. 6554 and H.R. 

 6558. 



The United States has consistently demonstrated by its actions, both domestic 

 and international, that it stands ready to take positive measures, and to seek 

 agreement of other nations to such measures, for the protection and conservation 

 of marine animals and other wildlife. We have negotiated a number of treaties 

 and agreements relating to the protection of living marine resources, including two 

 treaties specifically addressed to certain species of ocean mammals. These agree- 

 ments have been based on the concept of conservation, one definition of which 

 is to be found in the Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Re- 

 sources of the High Seas, adopted by the United Nations Conference on the Law 

 of the Sea, 1958. Article 2 of that Convention states : "As employed in this Con- 

 vention, the expression 'conservation of the living resources of the high seas' 

 means the aggregate of the measures rendering iwssible the optimum sustainable 

 yield from those resources so as to secure a maximum supply of food and other 

 marine products." Thus, in terms of these agreements we have been dealing with 

 marine animals as renewable resources to be used for the benefit of man. 



The United States has also been moving forward with measures for the pro- 

 tection of those species of wildlife which, on the basis of scientific evidence, 

 are deemed to be endangered or rare. The Endangered Species Conservation Act 

 of 1969 (P.L. 91-135) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to protect in 

 various ways species which he finds, on the basis of scientific evidence, to be 

 threatened with worldwide extinction. Included with in the latest list of species 

 prepared pursuant to the Act are certain species of whales, the Mediterranean 

 monk seal, dugongs and the West Indian manatee. 



Further, the United States exijects, dependent upon the appropriation of 

 funds, to convene a world conference on protection of wildlife either in the 

 fall of 1971 or the spring of 1972. A major objective of the conference will be to 

 conclude a convention on this subject. For that purpose, the International 

 Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (lUCN) has 

 prepared, in consultation with some 60 Governments, including that of the 

 United States, a draft of such a convention which divides wildlife to be given 

 .special protection into two categories, those species which are threatened with 

 extinction and those which are not yet so threatened but which require special 

 measures to prevent "undue exploitation incompatible with their survival." No 

 ocean mammals are listed in the first category ; all species of otters, seals 

 and sirenians (manatees, dugongs, etc.) are listed in the second category. The 

 draft convention provides for additions to or amendments of the lists, based 

 on the findings of competent scientists. 



The Department has serious doubts that the evidence available supports the 

 findings proi>osed by H.R. 6554. Giving full weight to the present findings of the 

 Secretary of the Interior and the lUCN, it appears that at present manatees 

 and dugongs, one species of seals and some species of whales are endangered 

 and that other species of seals and sea otters need special measures of protec- 



