Contact:  Stephanie Dorezas               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                          8/12/98

The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing annual changes to the List of Fisheries, which categorizes each U.S. commercial fishery based on the number of marine mammals seriously wounded or killed during fishing operations. The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made the announcement today, as required by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Each fishery is placed into one of three categories according to the level of interaction with marine mammals. Category I consists of fisheries with frequent injuries and deaths of marine mammals. Fisheries in category II have occasional interactions and fisheries in category III have seldom or no injuries and deaths of marine mammals.

Commercial fishermen who participate in fisheries placed in Category I or II must register in the Marine Mammal Assessment Program and submit a $25 fee unless registration has been integrated with a pre-existing state or federal registration program. The MMPA requires that all commercial fishermen 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 incidental to fishing operations.

Proposed changes for 1999 include adding the Atlantic herring midwater trawl fishery to the list for the first time and placing it in Category II. This fishery includes midwater trawl vessels harvesting Atlantic herring, and vessels using midwater trawls as pair trawls (one net towed by two vessels). This proposal will also effect the current Category III listing for the Gulf of Maine, Mid-Atlantic coastal herring trawl fishery. The fisheries service determined that there is little difference between the boats or gear fishing in Maine waters and those fishing in other Atlantic waters. As a result, the new proposed Category II listing for the Atlantic herring midwater trawl fishery will also include those currently operating in the Gulf of Maine, Mid- Atlantic coastal herring trawl fishery and remove them from last year's Category III .

Other changes include reclassifying the Gulf of Mexico menhaden purse seine fishery from Category III to Category II based on the observed bycatch of coastal bottlenose dolphins from 1992-1995.

The fisheries service is also proposing to clarify existing requirements and make them easier to use. Changes that update the number of participants in some fisheries and develop species lists will better reflect stock designations and the status of marine mammal stocks. In addition, minor changes in fishery descriptions including renaming the North Carolina haul seine fishery as the Mid-Atlantic haul seine fishery, renaming the Northeast multispecies sink gillnet fishery as the Northeast sink gillnet fishery, and modifying the name of several Alaska fisheries to include the target species are also included in the proposal

Finally, the proposed 1999 list will focus on several fisheries that the agency is currently considering to include in the List of Fisheries for 2000.

The List of Fisheries, which must be published annually by the fisheries service, classifies fisheries based on a two-tiered, stock-specific approach that first addresses the total impact of all fisheries on each marine mammal stock and then addresses the impact of individual fisheries on each stock. The annual rate of marine mammals seriously injured or killed incidental to commercial fisheries is compared to the Potential Biological Removal (PBR) level for each stock. The PBR level is defined in the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) 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 considers the cumulative fishery mortality and serious injury for a particular stock, while Tier 2 considers fishery-specific mortality and serious injury for a particular stock.

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 level of such a stock, then all fisheries interacting with that 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 fisheries service, an agency of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is the federal agency responsible for studying and protecting marine mammals in U.S. waters.