U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie used yesterday's annual whale count to promote his bill that would create a program to study the effects of human actions on whales and other marine mammals.

Standing at the Diamond Head scenic overlook, the congressman said it was fitting that the impetus for the program originate in Hawai'i, where an estimated two-thirds of the North Pacific humpback whale population migrates each year.

There's plenty of study into such subjects as the effects of sonar, pollution, and commercial fish nets on marine mammals, said Abercrombie, who is a member of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee and its Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans.

But he said there is virtually no way to get the information to the public, or to the courts where marine mammal disputes often end up. He said the problem would be helped with the passage of the National Marine Mammal Research Program Act of 2008, which he introduced last week.

The bill would establish an inter-agency coordinating committee that would develop a national marine mammal research plan.

"The problem was that you've got a whole bunch of agencies and groups and individuals — all of them with an interest in marine mammals and ocean research — and virtually no way to coordinate any of it," said Abercrombie, who is this year's honorary whale watch site leader.

"They (the courts) know what everybody's opinion is, they know what everybody's position is. But they have very little in the way of actual reliable research."

Abercrombie said Americans, and the people of Hawai'i in particular, have come to appreciate the importance of protecting the endangered humpback whales.

"If this legislation passes, the Marine Mammal Commission will be the independent institutional agency that will coordinate all of the research protocols and grant applications — and the money will flow through the commission, even if it's going out to other agencies."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.