468 



The bounty payment which is dictated by the statute has been 

 reduced to $5. 



Last year with a $5 bounty there were 19 seals offered for bounty. 



This year there have been nine seals as of the end of August 

 bountied since January 1. 



I give you this data to illustrate to you that this is not a meaningful 

 program in terms of control of the seal population. 



The hunter we did have, he was employed last year, worked for 48 

 days. He killed 53 seals. 



His operation was of a nature that he tries more to herd the seals 

 away from the gill nets, rather than to see how many seals he can ta]|e. 



You can see with taking only one seal a day he was not making ^y 

 very large impact on the seal population. 



This explanation I can give you in much more detail, give you the 

 records back to the y^ar one on it if you are interested, but I bring this 

 out to point out to yQu that this is a program designed to protect the 

 commercial fisheries. 



The problem is not one of predation on the wild fish. It is the 

 problem of the seals getting into the nets when they are after a cap- 

 tured salmon and they do destroy the nets and create other problems 

 for the fishermen trying to retrieve his net and his fish. 



I offer that as an explanation for the testimony you received on that 

 matter. 



Mr, Pelly. I understand that the sea lions do not stay in the 

 3-mile limit, but go out and the fishermen have problems with them 

 6 and 10 miles off the shores or northern California. 



Is it not a fact that it would take ,an international cooperative 

 arrangement in order to protect marine mammals out there? 



Mr. McKean. California does permit the commercial fishermen to 

 control seals and sea lions when they are ciausing damage to their 

 gear. 



I 'am not too knowledgeable about that problem, but conceivably 

 this would be an area that we could use some help in. 



Mr. Pelly. "Well, I think we have a pretty fine coopenative arrange- 

 ment on migratory birds where the number of Federal enforcement per- 

 sonnel are inadequate so they jusit deputize the state protection offices 

 and work together very closely. 



I lassiune that under language which you may suggest for sections 

 106 and 109, we could work out protectfion and conservation in connec- 

 tion with joint arrangements. 



Mr. Lenzini. Mr. Pelly, if I may at this point, we think the program 

 utilized with respect to the fish is more in point than the migratory 

 birds. 



In their 1965 legislation involving anadromous and Great Lakes 

 fisheries, the rationale of the Congress there was that these fish are 

 in international waters, in territorial waters and the streams of the 

 States and because of that a national State and national cooperation 

 would be necessary. 



At the same time when that program is employed it does not 

 preempt the State from setting regulations of its own on salmon \nth- 

 in the States. 



We think that something comparable to this might well be useful, 

 but we think that something comparable to the migratory bird con- 



