450 



Mr. DiNGELL. Thank you very much, sir. It is a very helpful 

 statement. 



Mr. Pelly. 



Mr. Pelly. Mr. Burns, would you enumerate those marine mammals 

 that are, as you say, resident of the territorial waters of Alaska which 

 do not go into Federal and international zones? 



Mr. Burns. Sir, I shall attempt to by first qualifying the comments. 



There are none hat you can definitely point to as occupying solely 

 the 3-mile contiguous zone along the 'State of Alaska. 



By resident, essentially we mean animals that spend the majority 

 of their time, that are tied to the land areas for the production of 

 young, for the rearing of young, that go out to, but have got to return 

 to both the territorial waters and the actual territory of the State of 

 Alaska. 



These include the land-breeding harbor seals, the Northern Sea otter 

 (Enhydra), the Steller's sea lion, an inhabitant of all of southeastern 

 Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and not a northern dwelling seal and 

 several very important stock populations of beluga whales, those in 

 the Bristol Bay region, those in the Cook Inlet area, those occurring 

 north of the Seward Peninsula. 



All of the belugas are of importance again to our coastal residents 

 because they provide a source of food. 



Mr. Pelly. Can you cite me any court decisions or any document of 

 any cases in which the Federal Government does not have jurisdiction 

 where marine mammals, even though they spend a majority of their 

 time in the territorial waters of the State, are not under the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Federal Government ? 



Mr. Burns. I am not sure, sir, that I understand your question. 



Mr. Peilly. Well, in other words, what I am trying to say is can you 

 establish any legal basis for claiming that marine mammals, even 

 though they spend a majority of their time in territorial waters, do 

 not migrate into international waters and therefore come under the 

 jurisdiction of the Federal Government? 



Mr. Burns. Certainly they do, sir, migrate into international waters. 



The present system with regard to management of the resources and 

 the responsibility obviously fell upon the State of Alaska because there 

 was no other agency to handle the management responsibilities and 

 that is the only traditional jurisdiction of resource management that 

 exists. 



As far as I know at the present time the representative from our at- 

 torney general's office is here and he may wish to comment. 



We have no specific legal claim at the present time. 



Mr. Dingell. If the gentleman from Washington would yield, I 

 believe it might be helpful to ask the gentleman from Alaska, who is 

 from the attorney general's office, to come up and sit beside you, and 

 he might wish to give us a comment on that point. 



Mr. Burns. I might point out that the status of the various marine 

 mammal resources and comments concerning their present condition 

 and the utilization are primarily what I am and was prepared to 

 provide to the subcommittee. 



Mr. Dingell. Well, at this point, with the Cliairs permission, your 

 associate! can indicate any legal basis for turning the State jurisdiction 

 over these marine mammals, and I think it should appear in the record 

 at this point. 



