Senator HOLLINGS. Mr. Pollock.

STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD W. POLLOCK, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE; ACCOMPANIED BY WALTER KIRKNESS, ACTING DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE; AND JAMES W. BRENNAN, DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL, NOAA

Mr. POLLOCK. Thank you.

Senator HOLLINGS. The Chair recognizes you as one who has almost been down to live with the the sea mammals. As an ocean expert in your own right, we welcome what you have to say. If there is any difference between your ideas and the Department's ideas, I wish you would tell me, so you can live with this statement.

Mr. POLLOCK. I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I am very pleased to be here. For the record, I am Howard W. Pollock, Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmoshperic Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss the marine mammal question, one which I think is of interest to all of us.

As you know, Mr. Chairman, the Secretary of Commerce, acting through NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is charged with the responsibility for the advancement, management, conservation and protection of all marine mammals of U.S. concern, except walrus, sea otter, polar bear and sirenia, which are the manatees and the dugongs.

We believe that the conservation and protection of any living resource requires a thorough knowledge of all the factors affecting that resource. We must act on the basis of facts in order to assure, to the maximum extent possible, that the course we are taking is, in truth, the best one. In order to obtain the necessary data and then carrry out a meaningful conservation program, certain basic procedures must be followed, regardless of the specific issue or resources involved. First of all, for example, a good inventory of the population stocks of all marine mammal species must be obtained in much the same manner as we have done for the fur seals. This must be coupled with an understanding of the animal's total ecosystem including such things as species interactions and environmental factors. In other words, any conservation program for a particular species must not only include studies of that species, but also other organisms which interact with that species in the marine environment, and indeed the environment itself. All sources of information and expertise must be available to those responsible for the conservation and protection of the resource. Such sources of information would include all agencies within the Federal Government, all appropriate State and local governments and agencies, and any informed private citizens or other entities. Once the required data are obtained, a more comprehensive conservation and protection program based on that data can be developed as has been done with the fur seals.

Mr. Chairman, as you very well know, during the past several years, public attention throughout the United States has been drawn in a

dramatic fashion to the problem of the conservation of marine mammals. In particular, strong public concern has been voiced with respect to the preservation of those marine mammals which appear to be threatened with extinction, and the question of the use of proper techniques for harvesting commercially utilized species. We of the NOAA want to assure the committee that we share each of these concerns and are deeply committed to the conservation and management of marine mammals.

We would like to briefly examine our activities to date on behalf of marine mammals so as to dispel some of this misunderstandings surrounding this subject.

NOAA is responsible under the Fur Seal Act of 1966 for management of the northern Pacific fur seal harvest carried out on the Pribilof Islands off the coast of Alaska. This program has been one of the most successful international conservation efforts ever mounted. First, it has saved the fur seal from the threat of extinction. Prior to the inauguration of this program in 1911, these animals were hunted indiscriminately on the high seas without regard to sex, age, or season of the year, with the result that their numbers had dwindled to a mere 200,000. Today, under strict controls, the fur seal population has risen to approximately 1,200,000 animals. While this number now approaches the estimated optimum size of the herd, a new factor has been introduced into the Bering Sea environment. Foreign fishermen now compete with the seals for the populations of fish resources that form a prime portion of the seals' food supply. This problem supports the need for a total ecosystems study which we feel is quite necessary.

The belief that the present population has declined substantially frrom its size in the 1930's and 1940's, Mr. Chairman, is erroneous. An analysis of the methods used by the government in estimating the population figures for those years shows that the published estimates were much too high and did not reflect the actual situation.

The earliest estimates of fur seal numbers were made during the period 1912-24 by direct pup counts, counts of mature males and the kill of bachelor males. Scientists developed an estimate of an 8 percent annual increase in population size. This estimate was developed while the herd size was small and rebuilding rapidly from near extinction. From 1924-47, no direct pup counts were made because the increased size of the herd, and increased number of pups, made it extremely difficult to conduct a reliable count. Only counts of mature males and harvested males were made.

The Government continued, however, to use the same 8 percent annual increase in population size developed during the 1912-24 period. It was on the basis of the 8 percent annual increase that the population in the 1940's was estimated to be about 4 million animals. In reality, it was later determined that the 8 percent figure was erroneous because the net rate of increase in the seal population slowed as the herd grew larger, due to reductions in the reproduction and survival rates. This is not unusual, Mr. Chairman. This is typical of any rebuilding population as the stock reaches the maximum figure which its habitat will support.

The best estimate of the seal population during its peak in the late 1940's has been determined to be slightly under 2 million, rather

than 4 or 5 million seals. A discussion of this subject appears in a paper written in 1954 by Kenyon, Scheffer, and Chapman, entitled "A Population Study of the Alaska Fur Seal Herd."

In the late 1950's, the scientists of all four treaty nations agreed that the population level at that time was higher than necessary for maximum sustained yield and recommended that it should be reduced through a planned harvest of females. This plan was carried. out. The present seal population now approaches what we consider to be the optimal level.

By limiting the fur seal harvest to Government-controlled taking on land, we have avoided many of the practices which are presently concerning the public. In contrast to the activities of the seal hunters of other countries operating on the ice between Labrador and Greenland, no baby seals are taken on the Pribilof Islands. Instead, for the most part, 2- to 4-year old bachelor males are harvested, which are surplus to the breeding requirements of the herds.

There has been much comment concerning the present harvesting method. Alternative means have been tested by both governmental and nongovernmental scientists, using the most sophisticated investigative techniques to determine the most esthetically acceptable and painless way of accomplishing instantaneous loss of consciousness. To date, no better method has been found than the one currently in use. This conclusion has been fully supported by an on-site investigation by a panel of distinguished veterinarians headed by Dr. C. Roger Smith, Professor of Research, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Ohio State University. Their report, which was submitted to the Secretary of Commerce is herewith submitted to the committee. Mr. Chairman, I would like to have it made part of the record, if there is no objection.

SENATOR HOLLINGS. Without objection, it will be included.
SENATOR STEVENS. Has that previously been released?

MR. POLLOCK. Yes, it has, Senator Stevens. This is dated August 4, 1971, but I felt it would be important to this part of the hearing. Now, Mr. Chairman, turning to another marine mammal, the whale, the Department of Commerce has taken vigorous action. As the committee knows, the Department of Interior found that eight species of whales met the criteria specified in the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969, and placed those species on the Endangered Species List. Three of them, the finback, the sei, and the sperm whale, are the only species which continue to have commercial importance.

Although the existing Endangered Species Act speaks only to imports of products and, therefor, does not prohibit the activities of American citizens on the high seas, the Secretary of Commerce believed it to be the intent of Congress that the United Statse should adopt a position of leadership to protect those species which are endangered. Accordingly, the Secretary of Commerce, by regulation, announced that no licenses would be issued for any American to take any species of whale on the Endangered Species List after December 31, 1971, and today there is no longer any U.S. commercial harvest of these marine mammals.

I will come back to the discussion of the Endangered Species Act in a moment.

Another problem which continues to receive our attention is that which arises in connection with the inadvertent taking of porpoises in the tuna fisheries in the eastern tropical Pacific as a result of the introduction of purse seines. The committee has already heard testimony on this subject from Mr. William Perrin, one of our fishery biologists, therefore, I will refer you to that part of the record for a description of our efforts to resolve this problem.

However, Mr. Chairman, I do want to emphasize that the yellowfin tuna fishermen want to protect the porpoise, and have more reason than anyone to insure the survival of the several species of porpoises. Their very livelihood depends upon it.

Mr. Chairman, I have with me several drawings, and I have some prints of them which I would like to give to the Chairman and to you, Senator Stevens.

Mr. Chairman, I will take a moment to show the drawings to show you what is involved, but generally the yellowfin tuna will gather under the porpoises, and this is a means by which the fishermen locate the tuna-by finding the porpoises.

They put the purse seine out and circle the tuna, and their objective is to allow a full escapement of the porpoises. There has been trouble with this; there has been a lot of experimentation going on in order to try to remove the danger to the porpoises. Several methods have been tried.

I wish I had a portion of the net with me to show you. I do not have it, but generally in the purse seine, there is a section of the net toward the back end, as is demonstrated here in the drawing, which is a very small mesh, so that the nose of the porpoise won't fit in it so that they would get caught in it and drown.

What the vessel is doing in this picture is backing off so that the end of the net, the back end, will settle and let the porpoises swim out, and then it is pulled back up, drawn away, so that all the fish will be in the net and all the porpoises will be out of it.

There have been several other experiments-most of these incidentally are conducted by industry, some by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The so-called Medina net I described is a net developed by Mr. Harold Medina, one of the men in the commercial fishing business, and further experimentation is going on with it. It has been moderately successful.

Here, as in the drawings you have there, shows a pneumatic tube which is at the tail end of this purse seine, and the idea is to let air out of this and let it sink so that the net dropping below will allow the porpoises to come out and retain the tuna in the net. By the introduction of air through pneumatic device, the tube will fill up and it again will raise and the tuna will be confined.

The other portion of that drawing, Mr. Chairman, shows a whistle which simulates the killer whale sound, and the porpoises are deathly afraid of the killer whale. It is done at the end of the vessel opposite the net. The objective is to make the porpoises swim away in the other direction and thus go through the pneumatic tube and get out of the net. The fishermen then close it again.

I don't want to convey to the committee that all of this problem has been solved, because it simply has not. There is a considerable

amount of experimentation going on, but I would like again to emphasize that the fishermen who fish for the yellowfin tuna depend upon the porpoise to find the fish, and they would have no reason at all to ever wish any of these porpoises to be destroyed, so they are really very careful and do whatever they can.

They are trying to devise methods to protect the porpoises so that they are not damaged in the process of catching the tuna. (The illustrations follow:)