Taking of Marine Mammals Incidental to Commercial Fishing Operations; Changes to the List of Fisheries Under Section 118 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act

摘要

On April 30, 1994, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) was amended and a new section 118 was created to govern the taking of marine mammals incidental to commercial fishing operations. As required by section 118, this notice proposes changes to the list of fisheries, classified by frequency of incidental serious injury or mortality of marine mammals, and requests comments on the proposed list. Some suggestions for revising the criteria under which fisheries are classified are also included, with a request for further comments on other criteria which should be considered. NMFS intends to publish revised classification criteria, based on comments received, and to publish another proposed list of fisheries, using the revised criteria.