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Senator Kerry. The record will remain open for questions to be 

 answered, and I think the Senator's comments about a landlocked 

 State's benefits of an aquarium are a point very well made. We 

 need the support of South Dakota as we do of Kansas, Nebraska, 

 and other landlocked places, though some not so landlocked these 

 days. But we do need their support in understanding this, and all 

 coastal States certainly benefit by others having an understanding 

 of it. And so I think that is a point well made. 



With respect to. Dr. Hofman, the Federal authority, it might be 

 helpful for the record to have you articulate both the research and 

 public display educational benefits of the intrusiveness that we do 

 permit into the habitat and the life of marine mammals. Perhaps 

 you might take a moment just to draw the record out on that. 



Dr. Hofman, do you want to lead off? 



Dr. Hofman. I think it is clear, Senator Kerry, in the case of 

 both scientific research and public display, as both you and Senator 

 Pressler have indicated, that these products are one of the things 

 that brought us here today. In many respects, I think beginning 

 with the issue of public display, we are here because of what we 

 have learned from television, from whale-watching, and from zoos 

 and museums. I was one of those raised in a landlocked State, and 

 much of my first experience with wildlife was in museums and 

 zoos, which I am happy to say are very, very different today than 

 they were when I was a boy. So, I think it is clear the role that 

 has been played by all of these various forms of media in develop- 

 ing an educated public. 



Now, that does not mean to say that we are not in a different 

 point in time and that we do not have to continuously reexamine 

 some of these issues and that there are not issues regarding hu- 

 maneness and other things. But I think it is clear in retrospect the 

 importance that public display, documentaries, and television, have 

 played in conservation and conservation issues. I do not think — I 

 suspect it is unlikely — that there would be a Marine Mammal Pro- 

 tection Act today if we had not had that background. 



Now, to look forward 20 years, it is much more difficult to have 

 20/20 foresight. With respect to scientific research, I think we can 

 say exactly the same thing. The ineffective regulation of commer- 

 cial whaling, the incidental take of porpoise in the yellowfin tuna 

 purse sein fishery, and the clubbing of baby harp seals in the 

 North Atlantic were, as I indicated in the last hearing, in response 

 I think to a question from Mr. Stevens, the key issues that lead 

 to the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. 



We have solved these and moved on to new problems because of 

 scientific research. And I will just illustrate a couple of points. 

 Within the last 2 years, by attaching satellite linked radio tags to 

 humpback whales and to bowhead whales we have overturned 

 much of our thinking concerning the basic distribution and move- 

 ments of these animals. Up until 2 years ago when people working 

 on whale research in the Gulf of Maine saw a wright whale or a 

 humpback whale and went back out the next day and did not find 

 it, they simply assumed that, the animal was still there but they 

 did not see it. 



