Doesn't 1,900 marine mammals a year seem like a significant underestimate of bycatch? Andy Read and co-authors estimated 6215 +/- 448 annually in the US from 1990-1999. Environment & Energy Daily February 16, 2007 OCEANS: 'Dolphin deadline' left out of Young's MMPA bill Allison Winter House Natural Resources Committee ranking member Don Young (R-Alaska) took the cover off a bill yesterday that would reauthorize the Marine Mammal Protection Act minus a "dolphin deadline" provision that environmentalists claim is vital to protecting marine life. Young's bill, H.R. 1007, would remove a federal restriction in the current bill meant to reduce commercial fishers' accidental catch. "The Marine Mammal Protection Act has been very successful in protecting and recovering marine mammals. However, it has been very onerous on commercial fishermen," Young said in a statement, adding that his legislation would "bring balance" to the act. The underlying act prohibits the killing of whales, dolphins and other marine mammals and has been a vital tool for environmentalists' legal efforts to protect whales from sonar and marine mammals from fishing interactions. The "dolphin deadline" requires fisheries managers to reduce the bycatch of marine mammals to "insignificant levels approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate." Environmentalists say it vital to protect dolphins and whales from commercial fishing operations, which accidentally kill approximately 1,900 marine mammals a year, according to Oceana's assessment of government numbers Young said his proposal would continue many protections for the species. It would still require commercial fishers to report all accidental kills of marine mammals and require federal officials to develop plans to reduce mortality and injury in fisheries. Efforts by House Republicans last year to move MMPA reauthorization without the dolphin deadline fell flat. Oceana and other environmental groups launched a campaign against the proposal, and the House Resources Committee restored the dolphin deadline before bringing the bill to the floor. That measure <http://www.eenews.net/features/bills/109/House/170706153250.pdf> unanimously passed the House under suspension of the rules, but the Senate never took it up.