The Marine Mammal Protection Act
Abstract
This paper includes information a particular environmental law. Specifically, the Marine Mammal Protection Act is discussed along with the history and background of this particular environmental law. In addition, the reasoning behind its existence will be elaborately deliberated.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act
The Marine Mammal Protection Act was established and signed in 1972. According to Ray and Potter (2011), this bill was “passed, despite some times-contentious testimony, without significant opposition or debate by both the House of Representatives and the Senate and was signed into law on 21 October 1972”. This particular environmental act sought to protect whales, dolphins,
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Congress created the Marine Mammal Protection Act as a reaction to the public's concern that human activities were threatening to extinguish certain species of marine mammals. As Dye (1993) states, “Congress enacted the MMPA to prohibit the harassing, catching and killing of marine mammals by U.S. citizens or within the jurisdiction of the United States”.
The MMPA is managed by primarily by both the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) external and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) external. The Marine Mammal Commission (MMC) external was bought in also to review and amend existing policies. This group of three members, chosen by the U.S. President, is appointed for three year terms. The FWS and NOAA have different roles in protecting marine mammals; the first taking responsibility for sea otters, walruses, polar bears, manatees; the latter taking responsibility for pinnipeds, including seals and sea lions, and cetaceans such as whales and dolphins. Also, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service external, part of the Department of Agriculture, is accountable for the regulations managing marine mammals in captivity.
There have been a number of amendments to the MMPA since 1972. According to Risenhoover (2012), “these amendments have added more legislation or, in some parts, lessened the regulations”. An example is the International Dolphin Conservation Act
practice in the world, According the Animal Welfare Act, animals such as rats, mice, fish
One such important law that was signed in 1966 was the Animal Welfare Act that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport, and by dealers.
They only used this time frame to try and see how impactful the new endangered species act was in regards to the manatee population in South Florida. Fifty-seven manatee carcasses were reported and of these seven of them were found in the Broward County area (Odell et al 1979). The main causes of death in these areas were from boating accidents or flood and lock gates. The flood and lock gates being the main focus in this article hypothesizing that manatees tend to swim upstream and because of this are more likely to get stuck in the gates. In these cases only external examinations were held and witness reports due to lack of evidence when decomposition began to occur from the animals. No other causes were found in these animals within the Broward County area and showed that despite the newly implemented act, they would still have some challenges on finding a way to better protect the
In 1946 a group of 15 nations gathered together to sign a treaty aimed at conserving the whale population following their strong concern regarding the over-hunting of whales. The treaty led to the creation of an oversight body known as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that was created under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The Convention is intended to allow for the proper conservation of whale stocks and make the established development of the whaling
Cetacean bycatch in fishing industries has been a highly debated topic for decades and is still considered an ongoing problem(NOAA 8). However, when it is looked at in comparison, the problem of bycatch has already been solved as much as is possible while still allowing fishing industries to fish at all. Cetaceans are defined as marine mammals. Bycatch is defined as any marine life that is caught and returned to the sea, whether it is dead or alive(Brooke 2). Therefore, many marine animals that are considered bycatch are not harmed in any way. Including these animals, the national bycatch ratio is still low(Brooke 3). Many actions have already been taken since this has become an issue that has reduced bycatch
Since the 1960 's, SeaWorld has captured wild orcas, domesticating them like cats or dogs while displaying them like goldfish in an aquarium. The cruelty and dangers that SeaWorld presents to these animals need to be diminished. The environments they live in, the lifestyle they have adapted to, and the behaviors that have resulted from captivity are shocking. The breeding program in place at SeaWorld and the accidents that have happened in the facility that houses these whales are equally horrifying. The organization of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, began its campaign “SeaWorld of Hurt” in May 2012. We need join PETA in efforts to end the captivity of killer whales, end the SeaWorld breeding program, and close all SeaWorld facilities.
For years the killer whale, also known as Orcinus orca, has been drawing the attention of the public through the entertainment industry. These marine mammals have been bringing in billions of dollars to amusement parks such as Sea World, but at what cost? An idea that these killer whales can live happily and content while in captivity may be going through the minds of the public, but this cannot be further away from the truth. To have such complex creatures in captivity is not morally correct and there are many points against it, such as their level of emotional competence, violence between the killer whales, violence of killer of whales towards trainers, shorter lifespans, physical harm, and their level of intelligence. After taking a look at how these creatures function and the conditions they are put in while in captivity, there is no question about whether or not these mammals should be kept in captivity; an experience such as this affects these marine mammals just about the same as it would affect a human because of their high highly developed emotions and complexity. Since these industries do not have a natural authority over these creatures no matter the cause, the best thing they could do for these killer whales is to stop capturing them and return those who are capable back to the wild.
The parties involved in this matter are the members of the tribe, both for and against the decision, the whales, the environmentalists, the courts that will settle the lawsuits and future generations that might be affected by any decision in regards to the impact on the whales sustainability. The decision at stake here is whether it is moral to revoke the ban and recent tradition,
In 1973, Congress passed the Endangered Species Act. The Act was passed in response to findings by Congress that growth and development were responsible for the extinction of species of fish, wildlife and plants.
In order to examine the current complications of the Endangered Species Act it is necessary to look at the history and inception of the Act and the debates surrounding this time period. The Endangered Species Act was signed into law in 1973 by President Richard Nixon. Upon signing the ESA,
These laws have been helpful, and now there are more manatees than before. Since they are doing better, the government may change their listing from “endangered” to “threatened.” This change wouldn’t remove the manatees’ protections right away. Still,
Holding killer whales in captivity is a harmful problem to the mammal that requires action from both the government and the public.
Cetacean bycatch is an ongoing problem in the oceans of the world. Cetaceans are defined as whales, dolphins and porpoises(CBRC 1). Bycatch is “marine mammals that are “captured” but discarded”(Read 2). This happens when fishing industries are fishing for a certain type of marine animal and other marine animals are caught accidentally along with the intended catch. Many times, this leads to the death of the animal that was not meant to be caught, and the animal is tossed back into the ocean. This happens with all kinds of marine life, and it has caused the depletion of many different species. However, this is specifically bad for cetaceans, such as dolphins and whales, because they have such a long lifespan(Brown 2). They also take a very long time to mature(Brown 2). These factors make catching these animals very detrimental to the species as a whole because it takes longer for them to reach an age where they can reproduce(Brown 2). The population of many cetaceans have decreased exponentially. When there is someone watching the nets that cetaceans are accidentally caught in, many times they can be saved. However, there are only select few types of fishing methods that do this, and they are not of the prevalent fishing methods that produce cetacean bycatch. This is a problem because there is a connection between most living animals. If a certain part of the connection is eliminated, it will all fall apart. For example, the relationship between
Whaling has become a global environmental issue as vast numbers of whales are killed commercially and scientifically every year. Intense debate on the necessity of whaling has been stirred but failed to be resolved due to the lacking of pragmatic measures employed by the responsible parties. Whaling nations continue to defend their whaling right for cultural and research purposes. Yet, ethical and humanity issues are among the controversial disputes raised by concerned public. In February 2010, International Whaling Commission (IWC) proposed a plan of lifting whaling ban by limiting scientific whaling activities with the intention of reducing overall number of whales killed besides solving the current impasse between pro
After carefully reviewing the available background information on the Makah Indian Tribe’s request for a waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) moratorium against hunting of gray whales, I believe that the waiver by the Makah peoples should be approved. I agree with the Makah Tribe’s position that their treaty rights, granted to them in the Treaty of Neah Bay (1855), should take precedence over more recently enacted legislation by the United States. Although the treaty