Office of International

Affairs and Seafood

Inspection [IASI]

Marine Mammal Protection Act

Import Rule

Implementing Import Provisions Under the MMPADriving Factors for U.S. Action

• Recognized threat to marine mammals

• Swordfish Petition

• Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) provisions to prohibit fish

imports from nations with unsustainable marine mammal bycatch

• The Secretary of the Treasury shall ban the importation of

commercial fish or fish product from fish which have been caught

with commercial fishing technology which results in the incidental

kill or serious injury of ocean mammals in excess of United States

standards.

• Reduce marine mammal bycatch associated with international commercial fishing

operations, by requiring nations exporting fish and fish products to the United States to

be held to the same standards as U.S. commercial fishing operations.

• Establish criteria for evaluating a nation’s regulatory program for reducing marine

mammal bycatch and the procedures nation must follow to receive authorization to

import fish and fish products into the United States.

Objectives

U.S. Identifies Foreign Fisheries

Nations Develop Regulatory

Program

Nations Submit Progress Report

U.S. Makes Comparability finding

Granted Denied

Consultation

Reapply

4 yr review yes no

Effective January 1, 2017 – a 5-yr Exemption Period beings during which nations must:

• Provide information to classify fisheries in the List of Foreign Fisheries (LOFF) (2017,

2020)

• Develop their regulatory program (2017-2021…..)

• Provide progress report mid-way through the exemption period (2019)

• Apply for a Comparability Finding to export to the U.S. (2021)

Consultations - Early and Often / Anytime upon Request

• During preparation of the LOFF,

• After publication LOFF to provide fishery classifications and regulatory requirements;

• Preliminary comparability finding

• Upon denial or revocation of a comparability finding

Final Rule to Implement Import Provisions under the

Marine Mammal Protection Act

Categories of Fisheries

Fisheries classified as either “export” or “exempt” based on

frequency of marine mammal bycatch

Export Fisheries have more

than a remote likelihood of

marine mammal bycatch

• Export Fishery = If

insufficient information; or

• Export Fishery = gear type

is gillnet, trawl, longline, or

purse seine

• Develop a regulatory

program comparable in

effectiveness to U.S.

regulatory program

Exempt Fisheries have a

remote likelihood of or no

known marine mammal

bycatch

• 10% or less of any

marine mammal stock’s

bycatch limit

• No regulatory program

requirement except—

Exempt and Export Fisheries must prohibit intentional killing

and serious injury of marine mammals

Comparability FindingComparability Finding Requirements

Conditions Within EEZ In Another

State

On the

High Seas

Fishery Registration

Marine Mammal Stock and Bycatch Estimate

Reporting and Monitoring Requirements

Calculation of a Bycatch Limit

Regulatory program to reduce bycatch below

bycatch limit

Take reduction plan (TRP) requirements

Regional Fisheries Management Org. (RFMO) or

Intergovernmental Agreement Requirements

Or Alternative Measures Comparable in

Effectiveness

Comparability Finding Issues

Additional Considerations—

• U.S. implementation of its

regulatory program for

similar marine mammal

stocks and similar fisheries

• The extent to which nation

has successfully

implemented measures to

reduce bycatch below the

bycatch limit

• Whether measures have

reduced or will likely

reduce bycatch below the

bycatch limit

U.S. implementation of its

regulatory program for similar

Import Prohibitions —

• Fail to receive or have

comparability finding

revoked

• Prohibit importation of fish

and fish products from

that fishery

• May require certification of

admissibility from other

fisheries of that nation

with the same or similar

fish products

Intermediary Nations—

• Triggered by Import

Prohibitions

• Applies to processing nations

• Must demonstrate that they

do not import prohibited

product

• Or have tracking and

verification procedures to

ensure that it prohibit product

is not exported to the U.S.

• Reviewed information from 160 trading partners that export

fish and fish products to the U.S.

• Eliminated 25 nations from the LOFF because fisheries do not

fall within regulatory scope of rule

• LOFF is comprised of 138 nations—720 exempt and 3,270

export fisheries

• 2017 Focus—List of Foreign Fisheries

• Sets stage for all regulatory actions going forward

• Demonstrates overall lack of bycatch information

• Prioritizes and identifies challenges and problem fisheries

• Separates harvesters from processors

• Useful to buyers and processors--

• Information posted at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia including fact

sheets and compliance guides

The List of Foreign Fisheries (LOFF)

• Top 20 exporting nations = Canada, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Chile,

India, Vietnam, Ecuador, Mexico, Russia, Japan, Philippines, Peru,

Argentina, Iceland, Honduras, Taiwan, South Korea, New Zealand,

United Kingdom

• Top products imported are shrimp, salmon, tuna

• Shrimp—more than 39 nations, largely aquaculture, some trawl,

not considered a bycatch threat

• Argentina, Canada, China, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras,

Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma,

India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan,

Philippines, Costa Rica, Greenland, Peru, Venezuela,

Panama, Spain, Tunisia, El Salvador, Denmark, Belize,

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Portugal, Singapore,

Morocco, Australia, Brunei, Saudi Arabia

The List of Foreign Fisheries

(LOFF)

• Salmon—more than 22 nations, largely aquaculture, some gillnet

and trawl, intentional killing at aquaculture facilities a problem

• Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, Faroe Island, Germany,

Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, United

Kingdom; Denmark, Costa Rica, Vietnam, France, Taiwan,

Thailand, Japan, Latvia, South Korea

The List of Foreign Fisheries

(LOFF)

• Tuna– more than 44 nations, longline, purse seine, handline, troll,

managed under regional fisheries management organizations

• Purse seine—intentional setting on cetaceans prohibited in Indian

Ocean and Western/Central Pacific

• Longline—interaction rate largely unknown, depredation is a problem

• Gillnet—greatest threat in Indian Ocean

• Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, South Africa, Suriname, Canada,

Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam, Ecuador, Spain, Thailand, Cape

Verde, Ecuador, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, China, Barbados,

Brazil, Guyana, Japan, Maldive Island, Marshall Islands, Panama,

Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu,

Venezuela, Western Samoa, Turkey, Malta, Costa Rica, India,

Croatia, Italy, El Salvador, Tunisia, Colombia, Solomon Islands,

Grenada, Mozambique

The List of Foreign Fisheries

(LOFF)

• Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Ecuador have large numbers of small

gillnet, purse seine, and trawl vessels with marine mammal bycatch.

• Panama—8 export fisheries, 2 exempt fisheries;

• shrimp trawl, tuna purse seine, and pelagic species longline

flatfish trawl, corvine/mackerel purse seine bycatch unknown;

• corvina/mackerel, and lobster gillnet fisheries bycatch likely,

estimates unknown

• Colombia—10 export fisheries, 0 exempt fisheries;

• shrimp trawl, tuna purse seine, and pelagic species longline

bycatch unknown;

• pelagic species and groundfish gillnet bycatch of pygmy sperm

whale, Tucuxi, bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, spotted

dolphins likely significant

The List of Foreign Fisheries

(LOFF)

• Ecuador—21 export fisheries, 6 exempt fisheries;

• tuna purse seine and longline fisheries bycatch unknown;

• shrimp trawl and purse seine fisheries bycatch unknown;

• small pelagic species purse seine bycatch unknown;

• small pelagic species, porgy, comber, sole, corvine, shrimp,

rockfish gillnet and trammel net fisheries bycatch likely significant,

vessels number in the 10s of thousands

The List of Foreign Fisheries

(LOFF)

• Peru—70 export fisheries, 34 exempt fisheries;

• anchovy and sardine purse seine bycatch of South American sea

lion, Burmeister's porpoise, common dolphin, long-beaked

common dolphin, dusky dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, South

American fur seal;

• anchovy and sardine and small pelagic species gillnet bycatch

similar to purse seine estimates likely in the thousands;

• tuna gillnet, troll, longline bycatch unknown;

• Large pelagic species (dolphinfish and shark) longline bycatch

unknown

• shark gillnet fisheries bycatch of Burmeister's porpoise, common

dolphin, long-beaked common dolphin, dusky dolphin, bottlenose

dolphin, likely in the thousands

The List of Foreign Fisheries

(LOFF)

• Chile—46 export fisheries, 39 exempt fisheries;

• purse seine for anchovy, mackerel, herring bycatch of southern

sea lion;

• longline for toothfish bycatch of killer whales, sperm whale, pilot

whales;

• finfish trawl bycatch of southern sea lion and South American fur

seal;

• crab traps bycatch of Peale’s dolphin;

• drift gillnet for swordfish bycatch of common dolphin, pilot whales,

Juan Fernandez fur seal; and southern sea lion likely significant

The List of Foreign Fisheries

(LOFF)

• Greatest bycatch threat is gillnet fisheries (set and drift)

• Difficult to mitigate

• Acoustics do not work for many cetaceans

• Alternative gears should be considered

• Trawl fisheries have demonstrated bycatch (e.g., Australia, New

Zealand, France)

• The unknowns—purse seine, longline, pot gear, and aquaculture using

lines

• Bycatch estimates needed for these gears

• May be feasible mitigation measures (e.g., weak hooks, weak

rope/line, safe release measures)

• Better estimates of bycatch are needed in all fisheries

Take Home Message From the List

of Foreign Fisheries (LOFF)

Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection [IASI]

Thank You!

Nina Young Nina.Young@noaa.gov

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/species/marine_m

ammals/mmpaloff.html