§1414a Research

Summary

The Secretary must study how deliberately surrounding and chasing dolphins during purse seine fishing for yellowfin tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean affects dolphins and dolphin populations. The study starts on October 1, 1997 and includes population surveys in 1998, 1999, and 2000 and stress studies. The stress work includes a review of stress research and three years of necropsy (post‑mortem) samples from dolphins taken by commercial vessels, one year of historical demographic and biological data review, and an experiment that repeatedly chases and captures dolphins by intentional encirclement. The Secretary must send a report with the results to the named Congressional committees and to the Inter‑American Tropical Tuna Commission no later than 90 days after the finding called for under subsection (g)(2) of section 1385. The Secretary must also, with the Marine Mammal Commission and cooperating nations in the International Dolphin Conservation Program and the Inter‑American Tropical Tuna Commission, do or fund research to meet that program’s goals. That research can cover things like new fishing methods and gear to cut or stop accidental dolphin deaths and serious injuries; ways to catch mature yellowfin without setting nets on dolphins; stock assessments for marine mammals taken by the fishery (including outside U.S. waters); and studies of how often, where, and with what effect non‑target species (including juvenile tuna) are taken. Congress authorized funding of $4,000,000 for fiscal year 1998, $3,000,000 for fiscal year 1999, $4,000,000 for fiscal year 2000, and $1,000,000 for fiscal year 2001 for the subsection (a) research, plus an additional $3,000,000 for each of those four fiscal years to carry out the section.