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Index 



I. Issues which may surface during hearings. 

 II. Comments on marine mammal protection generally. 

 III. Comments on particular types of marine mammals : 



1. Whales. 



2. Eared seals (fur seals and sea lions) . 



3. Earless (or true) seals. 



4. Walruses. 



5. Sea otters. 



6. Polar bears. 



7. Sea cows. 



Issues Which May Surface During Hearings 



1. Where should the line be drawn between federal as opposed to state enforce- 

 ment of protection of marine mammals? 



2. Should Federal research authority for marine mammals, presently quite 

 small and scattered, be coordinated and expanded? If expanded, to what level? 



3. Is it desirable, practical and possible to reinstate authority for manage- 

 ment of marine mammals in one agency, such as Interior? Until last year. In- 

 terior had these, but the transfer of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries to the 

 Department of Commerce last October transferred responsibility for seals and 

 whales (except as these may be endangered, and thus still within the responsi- 

 bility of the Office of Endangered Species in Interior.) This issue should also 

 be considered in the light of the probability of the creation of a Department of 

 Natural Resources, which would reunite these two lines of authority. 



4. What should be the relationship of any bill to come out of the Committee 

 to the existing Whaling and Fur Seal Acts ? 



5. Should the government be given the authority to restrict the importation 

 of marine mammals, or products of these, in cases where these have been taken 

 in other countries by methods which the U.S. will not permit? 



6. Should an absolute ban or moratorium be imposed upon the hunting or kill- 

 ing of certain types of marine mammals? 



7. Should greater urgency be impressed upon the Department of State to bestir 

 itself to develop more effective international agreements for the protection of 

 marine mammals which currently have little or none? 



8. Should porpoises knowingly taken in the course of American tuna fleet 

 operations be excluded from protection ? 



9. Should "finders' fees" be added to the criminal sanctions, to encourage more 

 adequate enforcement of a law which might be difficult to enforce without it? 



10. Are the criminal penalties in these bills adequate? (The profits from kill- 

 ing a large whale can be larger than the potential fines.) 



11. Should greater restrictions be placed upon the capture of marine mammals 

 for public display in zoos, private collections, commercial "Marinelands" and the 

 like? The major incentive for these organizations to take adequate care of their 

 animals is often only the cost of their replacement, and in coastal areas, this cost 

 may well be negligible. 



Comments on Marine Mammal Protection Generally 



The principal use of marine mammals by man today are (a) furs, for a luxury, 

 market, (b) meat, for consumption by natives and as food for mink and cats, 

 (c) oil and spermaceti from the sperm whale (barred from the U.S.A. as of 

 December 1971 ) , and ( d ) "sport", in the case of the polar bear. 



The extent of Federal interest and control over marine mammals varies 

 widely. It is intense in the case of the Alaska fur seal, and it is virtually 

 nonexistent in the case of animals such as walruses and hair seals. 



There are few international agreements for the protection of marine mammals. 

 There is a treaty for the manaerement of the fur seal, which is generally con- 

 sidered to be successful, and there is a treaty for the regulation of whaling, 

 which is rarely considered to be successful. These treaties lack adequate funding, 

 and many consider them to be relatively toothless. 



Federal research funding for marine mammals is concentrated on whales and 

 fur seals, with limited fimds available for i)olar bears and sea otters. The 

 annual research budget for marine mammals in the Interior and Commerce 

 Departments combined is less than $200,000. 



