Developed as a tool to assist environmentalists in the use of existing source materials related to the "US" Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and to help them better understand what is expected and required for ESA and MMPA compliance. Contains an introduction and overview of the threatened and endangered species programs, the statutes and applicable regulations, guidance memoranda, an excerpt from the Interagency Consultation Handbook, and a summary of selected precedent-setting or recent legal cases that interpret the ESA and MMPA and implementing regulations.