From the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland by Allen P Sragow 19th August 2019
United States Marine Mammal Protection Act 1972 (“MMPA”) prohibits injuring marine mammals. These regulations significantly restrict the means US fisheries may use to protect their catch and their farms. Until recently, as a practical matter, these laws did not affect foreign countries exporting to the United States. That is about to change, and the global aquaculture industry may lose the United States as a customer. This article focuses on Scotland’s salmon industry, its need to improve regulation and to eliminate deterrence devices that violate the MMPA, and identifies possible solutions.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act
Marine mammals have always been a part of the United States ocean environment. By the 1960s, the outlook for the marine mammal populations was looking grim. “Recent history indicates that man’s impact upon marine mammals has ranged from what might be termed malign neglect to virtual genocide. These animals, including whales, porpoises, seals, sea otters, polar bears, manatees and others, have only rarely benefitted [sic] from our interest; they have been shot, blown up, clubbed to death, run down by boats, poisoned, and exposed to a multitude of other indignities, all in the interests of profit or recreation, with little or no consideration of the potential impact of these activities on the animal populations involved.”(1)
The US therefore passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.(2) The MMPA was generally thought of as a big success. Dolphin bycatch in the tuna industry was a headline issue, and by 1980 dolphin bycatch was reduced from 500,000 to 20,000 dolphins per year.(3) The MMPA was designed to protect mammals in international waters as well, essentially for two reasons. Aside from the obvious environmental reasons, restricting only US interests would make competition very difficult. The original MMPA provided: