To amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to protect the cultural practices and livelihoods of producers of Alaska Native handicrafts and marine mammal ivory products, and for other purposes, section 2, Sec. 2.
Written by .
What marine mammal ivory covers
The document says “means”Who acts: CongressHow: statuteSec. 2 in the PDF
What the document says
“includes a tooth or tusk from a walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) or a species of cetacean.”
The second of the three defined terms. Marine mammal ivory takes in a tooth or a tusk, from a walrus, named by its scientific name Odobenus rosmarus, or from a species of cetacean. The word used is includes, not means, so the list is not closed. The term is used later in the paragraph that bars state prohibitions.
What the document actually says
“includes a tooth or tusk from a walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) or a species of cetacean.”
That sentence, in plain words
Ivory here takes in a tooth or a tusk. It can come from a walrus. It can come from a whale or a dolphin.
What this is about
A cetacean is a whale, a dolphin, or a porpoise. The law says ivory includes these teeth and tusks. It does not say that is the whole list.
No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken, and nobody has yet read it against the record. See what the tracker does not yet cover.
The quotation is the document's own words, exactly as printed, and we check the page
number against the Act itself before publishing. The paragraph underneath is our summary,
not the document's words. So is the plain English version, which is why it sits beside the
quotation rather than replacing it.
