520 



Several scientists have reported, unofficially, that Stellar sealions 

 may also be aborting. Suggestions of similar problems affecting the 

 Pribilof herds now abound in scientific circles. It is inferred that 

 large numbers of fur seals may be aborting at sea. 



I fear that the present pattern of reproductive interference in ma- 

 rine mammals may yet parallel the situation which showed up a num- 

 ber of years ago in birds. What began as a puzzling minor problem now 

 threatens the very existence of a number of Avian species, such as 

 Brown pelicans, Peregrine falcons, and so forth. 



All marine mammals are threatened in some degree or another by 

 pollution stemming from industrial effluents, municipal and agricul- 

 tural discharges, the dumping of garbage and toxic wastes at sea, oil 

 spills, military testing, and so on. At least two species to be considered 

 in this legislation, the California sea otter and the Florida manatee 

 are severely menaced by speedboats. 



We must realize that if the marine environment is permitted to de- 

 teriorate to a critical point, whether or not marine mammals are de- 

 liberately killed may become academic. The survival of marine mam- 

 mals — and perhaps eventually our own survival— is very much tied in 

 with preserving and restoring the overall marine environment. 



Thor Heyerdahl, in a letter to Friends of the Earth, has recently 

 said that he considers man's behavior to the marine environment as "a 

 threat to human survival greater than the atom bomb." 



We should like to suggest that ecological studies funded under this 

 legislation can be used to provide the Congress with the additional 

 information it will require to enlarge the concept of marine mammal 

 protection beyond the halting of deliberate molestation by U.S. citi- 

 zens. This should include recommendations for establishrnent of ma- 

 rine sanctuaries, free of motorboats, and commercial activity. 



We consider it most important that the behavior of marine mam- 

 mals be intelligently studied. The ethological methds which have 

 proven so fruitful in the study of terrestrial mammals in the past few 

 years should certainly be applicable to the study of marine mammals 

 if the appropriate funding and incentives are provided. 



I have recently received a letter from Dr. T. J. Walker, the pioneer 

 cetologist and oceanographer, who previously appeared before this 

 committee. Dr. Walker calls for a study of whales and other ocean 

 mammals based on continuous observation of living animals. He cites 

 the need for developing sophisticated underwater research vehicles 

 to permit the observation of mammals below the surface where most 

 of their essential activities are conducted. 



We strongly endorse Dr. Walker's demand that all federally 

 funded research projects deliberately adjunctive to commercial ex- 

 ploitation of marine mammals, such as the killing and butchering of 

 316 nominally protected Grey whales by the Del Monte Co. of Eich- 

 mond, Calif., under "special scientific permit," or the killing at sea of 

 824 fur seals by the Department of the Interior in 1968, be halted. 



We consider it imperative that research funded under this legisla- 

 tion be pure research, not applied research subordinate to commercial 

 exploitation. Imaginative work, aimed at understanding living ani- 

 mals, is needed. 



The kind of research we have seen all too often in the past; trivial, 

 unimaginative and repetitive to the point of absurdity; based solely 



