Development of a Process for the Long-term Monitoring of MMPA Category I and II Commercial Fisheries: Proceedings of a Workshop held in Silver Spring, MD

A workshop to discuss the development of a process for the long term monitoring of Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) Category I and II commercial fisheries, and to evaluate the utility of rotational scheduling in that process, was held on June 15-16, 1998 in Silver Spring, Maryland. The MMPA requires that all U.S. commercial fisheries be categorized according to their level of marine mammal mortality and serious injury. The lack of information on the level of mortality/serious injury associated with the 24 Category II fisheries makes it difficult to verify whether the current categorization of these fisheries is correct. Rotational scheduling may make the necessary funding available to monitor the large number of Category II fisheries that are not currently being observed.