Contact: Gordon Helm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
7/15/96
The National Marine Fisheries Service is seeking public comment on the proposed 1997 List of Fisheries that classifies each fishery according to its interaction with marine mammals. As part of the proposed changes, the fisheries service is also considering refining the regulations to promote increased state/federal coordination of Marine Mammal Protection Act registration requirements.
In addition, the fisheries service is seeking comment on a proposed reclassification of the Gulf of Maine/Mid-Atlantic Lobster Pot/Trap Fishery from Category III to Category I. In the 1996 List of Fisheries, the fisheries service discussed the need to propose reclassifying the fishery to Category II. A review of data from 1990 to 1994 noted a high level of interactions with marine mammals including a critically endangered northern right whale, 11 endangered humpback whales, and six minke whales. Additional entanglements of northern right whales in lobster pot gear during the past two years also have been reported.
The U.S. Congress requires an annual List of Fisheries under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The 1994 amendments to the Act are designed to reduce marine mammal mortality during commercial fishing operations.
The fisheries service is seeking to reduce the paperwork burden on both commercial fishermen and the agency. Information already collected as part of a state fishery registration program, or other federal vessel registration program, could be used to fulfill the requirements of registration under the MMPA. For those fisheries where registration under the MMPA can be successfully coordinated with another registration program, the fisheries service will consider waiving the $25 registration fee. The fisheries service is committed to working with New England and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce this burden on both fishermen and fisheries managers.
The proposed 1997 list evaluates U.S commercial fisheries based upon a two tiered, stock-specific approach that first addresses the total impact of all fisheries on each marine animal stock and then addresses the impact of individual fisheries on each stock. This approach is based on the rate, in numbers of animals per year, of serious injuries and mortalities due to commercial fishing relative to the Potential Biological Removal level (PBR) for each marine mammal stock. PBR is defined as the maximum number of animals that may be removed from a marine mammal stock while allowing that stock to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population.
Tier 1: If the total annual mortality and serious injury
across all fisheries that interact with a stock is less than
or equal to 10 percent of the PBR of such a stock, then all
fisheries interacting with this stock would be placed in
Category III. Otherwise these fisheries are subject to the
next tier to determine their classification.
Tier 2-Category I: Annual mortality and serious injury of a
stock in a given fishery is greater than or equal to 50
percent of the PBR level.
Tier 2-Category II: Annual mortality and serious injury in
a given fishery is greater than 1 percent and less than 50
percent of the PBR level.
Tier 2-Category III: Annual mortality and serious injury in
a given fishery is less than or equal to 1 percent of the
PBR level.The MMPA regulations require all commercial fishermen, regardless of category, to submit a report to the fisheries service within 48 hours of the end of each fishing trip if they have injured or killed a marine mammal incidentally in the course of fishing.
Comments on this proposal should be sent to Chief, Marine Mammal Division, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, Silver Spring, MD, 20910. Comments must be received by Oct. 15, 1996.