345 



of all tropical tunas landed in the United States by vessels operating 

 from the United States. Some of our members operate from Puerto 

 Rico. 



There are 132 U.S. tuna clippers ; that is, vessels that have a carrying 

 capacity of 100 short, tons of frozen tmia or more. The total trip carry- 

 ing capacity of this fleet is about 60,000 tons. There are 12 additional 

 vessels under various stages of construction in the United States. 



We oppose the legislation before this subcommittee calling for the 

 complete protection by law of all marine mammals. 



Our interest in the proposed bills arises from the fact that the term 

 of "marine mammal'' as used in such bills includes porpoise. For over 

 40 years, U.S. tuna fishermen have used porpoise to locate and cap- 

 ture tunas in certain areas of the eastern Pacific. AVithin the past 25 

 years, specialized fishing skills and techniques have been developed 

 within the U.S. tuna fleet to better utilize the unique relationship that 

 exists between certain tunas and porpoise. 



In great measure, the success of the U.S tuna fleet in meeting the 

 challenge offered by every other tuna producer in the world that sells 

 frozen tuna in the free market of the Ignited States, can be attributed 

 to the fact that the I^.S. fishermen and the porpoise have been learn- 

 ing how to live together in accomplishing the task of capturing the 

 tunas. It is no secret in worldwide fishing circles that the U.S. tuna 

 fishermen have a competitive advantage over foreign fishennen in us- 

 ing the purse seine technique on tunas that travel with porpoise. 



To a substantial degree, the future of the U.S. tuna fleet as a viable, 

 competitive fishing fleet is essentially connected with porpoise. This 

 is one reason why strong emotional feelings arise within our fleet con- 

 cerning the treatment of porpoise. We want to continue the use of por- 

 poise to help us locate and capture tunas. We are against any activity 

 of man that will reduce our opportunities to work with porpoise in 

 capturing tuna. Under H.R. 6558 and other identical bills, the terms 

 "take" or "taking'' or "taken" are defined so that it would make our 

 use of porpoise in catching tuna unlawful. 



In using porpoise to catch tuna, it is necessary to first locate the 

 porpoise. Because porpoise are air bi'eathers and stay close to the sur- 

 face, it is easier for the fishermen to spot them more easily at a distance 

 than they can fish. Upon sighting a school of porpoise, the tuna vessel 

 proceeds to pursue or chase the poqwise for the purpose of detennin- 

 ing whether a tuna school is associated. In making this determina- 

 tion, the tuna vessel will repeatedly maneuver in and about the por- 

 poise, looking for signs that the tuna are following the porpoise. One 

 could classify this searching maneuver as a form of harassment. If no 

 tuna are detected with the porpoise, the tuna vessel leaves and proceeds 

 to look for other ocean signs that may lead to the discovery of tuna. 



Upon examination of the language used in section 201(c) of H.R. 

 6558, and in considering the above facts related to a very common and 

 innocent example of how U.S. tuna fishermen use porpoise to locate 

 tuna, it would be possible to conclude that the tuna vessel had com- 

 mitted a series of unlawful acts in that it pursued, hunted, and har- 

 assed porpoise, or at least that such vessel attempted to pursue, hunt, 

 or harass the porpoise in tfying to locate and detect a school of tuna. 



It would appear that the definition offered in section 201(c) lends 

 itself to an unreasonable analysis and to the acceptance of conditions 

 that are totally unrealistic. 



