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, D.C. – Legislation that will continue important protections for marine mammals while correcting the most onerous requirement for commercial fisheries in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) was introduced by U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).

“The Marine Mammal Protection Act has been very successful in protecting and recovering marine mammals.  However, it has been very onerous on commercial fishermen,” said Young, the Ranking Member on the House Natural Resources Committee.   “This legislation will bring some balance to the Act while still continuing important protections for marine mammals.”

The legislation (H.R. 1007) will remove the requirement that commercial fisheries reduce the incidental take of marine mammals to “insignificant levels approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate”.

This legislation will not change the requirements for commercial vessel owners or operators to report all incidental mortality and injury of marine mammals during the course of a commercial fishery.  Fisheries will continue to be listed as category I, II, or III based on the level of marine mammal mortality and injury occurring in the fishery.  The Secretary will still be required to establish take reduction teams and develop take reduction plans to reduce the level of marine mammal mortality and serious injury in category I and II fisheries. 

“Fishermen Want To Earn A Livelihood In A Manner

That Protects Marine Mammals”

“Commercial fishermen are good stewards of the ocean.  They do not want to kill marine mammals - they want to earn a livelihood in a manner that also provides adequate protections to the species,” Young said.   “This legislation will allow them to do that and will continue many levels of protection for marine mammals.

“The MMPA has a number of guiding principles to assist in the protection of marine mammals.  The overall goal of the Act is to maintain or restore marine mammal populations to their optimum sustainable population.   Another is the potential biological removal level (PBR) for a marine mammal stock which is defined as the ‘maximum number of animals, not including natural mortalities, that may be removed from a marine mammal stock while allowing that stock to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population.’   When calculating PBR the agency takes into account all activities with incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals.   However, the fishing industry is the only industry required to take on the burden of reducing the incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals through a take reduction team process. 

“Fisherman have been willing participants and, in some cases, leaders in the research and development of gear to reduce interactions with marine mammals.  In addition, the take reduction team process, with the help of commercial fishermen, has been successful in reducing interactions between fisheries and marine mammals.  However, I believe the requirement for commercial fisheries to reduce their level of interactions with marine mammals to a level of 10 percent of PBR is overly burdensome.

“For that reason, I am proposing this legislation which will remove the zero mortality rate goal from the Act.  It will retain all of the other protection measures in the Act and in section 118 including the establishment of take reduction teams which will develop take reduction plans to reduce the level of marine mammal mortality and serious injury to levels below PBR in commercial fisheries around the nation. 

“This is common sense conservation legislation that should be enacted by this Congress,” Young said. 

Background Information

* Section 118 of the MMPA outlines how commercial fisheries can interact with marine mammals.  Fisheries that have interactions with marine mammals are listed in one of three categories based on their interactions (causing mortality or serious injury) with marine mammals.  Category I fisheries have frequent interactions, category II fisheries have occasional interactions, and category III have rare interactions.

* Section 118 currently requires category I and II fisheries to reduce their incidental take of marine mammals first to levels below the potential biological removal level.  The potential biological removal level is the numbers of animals that can be taken from a population without reducing its ability to maintain a healthy population level. 

* The MMPA also accounts for takes by all human activities, although commercial fisheries are the only industry that is required to reduce its incidental take of marine mammals. 

* Section 118 also requires category I or II fisheries to reduce the incidental take of marine mammals to “insignificant levels approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate” (ZMRG).

* As part of a court settlement, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) went through a proposed/final rule process and, while they didn’t define it as zero, ZMRG was defined as 10 percent of potential biological removal level or 90 percent of the marine mammal’s historic population. 

* By defining ZMRG as 10 percent of the potential biological removal level, the NMFS is essentially managing marine mammal populations at 90 percent of their historic levels.  In contrast, fisheries are managed to maintain a level of 60 percent of their historic levels.

* Congressional reports outline the intent of ZMRG to be a goal, not a set number, and refer to examples of fisheries where ZMRG was based on the best available technology available to the fishery. 

* H.R. 1007 removes ZMRG, the most onerous requirement for fishermen, but maintains three levels of protection and would still require the fisheries to reduce their incidental take of marine mammals to levels below potential biological removal levels.

For more information, access the Committee on Natural Resources’ Minority website at:

http://republicans.resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.shtml