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poses. Unintentional taking in the course of activities like ofFshore oil and gas devel- 

 omnent may be authorized when the taking would have negligible impacts on the 

 affected species or population stock and the Secretary promulgates regulations set- 

 ting forth permissible methods of taking, and requirements for monitoring and re- 

 porting the taking. Much commercial whalewatching involves species that are listed 

 as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Consequently, it 

 can be done legally under the Marine Mammal Protection Act only if it does not 

 result in taking (harassment). 



Most commercial whalewatching is conducted by persons knowledgeable and con- 

 cerned about the welfare of the wnales and the health of the oceans. Consequently, 

 thev try to approach and provide opportunities for watching whales in ways that 

 will not affect the whales and to educate their passengers on whale conservation 

 and more genered oceanic matters. In most U.S. areas where comimercial 

 whalewatching is being done, either the National Marine Fisheries Service or the 

 operators themselvesnave developed guidelines for approaching and observing 

 wiales in ways that avoid harassment. 



However, it is unlikely that the potential benefits of commercial whalewatching 

 are being fully realized at present. For example, neither the industry nor the Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service have developed either guidelines or standard proce- 

 dures for collecting and archiving data on distribution, abundance, and other vari- 

 ables that would be useful for detecting and monitoring long-term population trends. 

 Towards this end, the Conmiission beUeves it would be useful for the National Ma- 

 rine Fisheries Service to organize and hold woricshops, in each of its regions where 

 conmiercial whalewatching is done, to identify cooperative actions that could be 

 taken by the Service and the industry to (a) use commercial whalewatching as one 

 of the means for obtaining the long-time series of data needed to detect and monitor 

 cetacean population trencfa; and (b) determine whether additional guidelines or reg- 

 ulations are necessary to ensure that whalewatching has only beneficial effects. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Committee for this opportunity 

 to explain the Commission's views on these important issues. I would be pleased to 

 try to answer any questions you may have. 



Senator Lott. Mr. Chairman, after this panel's testimony and 

 the questions have been completed, I ask consent that a statement 

 on behalf of the Marine Mammal Coalition be included in the 

 record. 



Senator Kerry. Without objection. 



Senator Lott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Senator Kerry. We have a vote on, and rather than begin the 

 questions and then interrupt, I think what we will do is recess now 

 very quickly, take the vote, and come back and begin the question- 

 ing. So, we will stand in recess through the vote. 



[A brief recess was taken.] 



Senator Kerry. The hearing will come back to order. We thank 

 you for your patience. We have a number of issues to address with 

 respect to questions regarding display and research, and I would 

 like to try to get at it. 



First of all, let me ask you, Mr. Secretary, we are a little bit 

 under the gun here in the sense that we have the incidental 

 takings expiration in October. And we are going to be trying to 

 move fairly rapidly, if we can, with respect to reauthorization. I do 

 not know if we can meet that deadline or not, but the problem is 

 obviously that as that interim exemption expires, there are going 

 to be some shutdowns of fisheries or something is going to happen 

 with response to that. And here we have your regulations that 

 have gone over to 0MB and are sitting there. 



And it is hard for us to know how to proceed. We have some rec- 

 ommendations from folks on both sides of the research fence and 

 public display fence, but we do not really have your regulations. 

 We do not know where the in between is or how you have resolved 

 some of these disputes. So, the question is, first of all, When can 



