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on 11-15 April 1983 in Washington, D.C. The papers did 

 not adequately address the entanglement problem, and 

 the Commission wrote the Service urging it to plan and 

 convene an international workshop to address aspects of 

 the problem, a proposal first put forth by the Commission 

 in 1982. During informal consultations with the Service 

 prior to the annual meeting of the North Pacific Fur Seal 

 Commission, the Marine Mammal Commission emphasized its 

 concern over the apparent decline of the North Pacific fur 

 seal population and the possibility that entanglement was a 

 major cause of this decline. On 21 April, the Service 

 responded to the Commission, noting that it agreed that 

 prompt and effective action was needed to deal with the 

 serious and continuing decline in the fur seal population 

 and that it was its intention to pursue a number of steps 

 to further protect fur seals, including convening a workshop 

 in August 1983 on the entanglement issue. The Service also 

 committed itself to preparing and making available by 

 15 March of each year a review of the status and trends 

 of the fur seal population and a plan of action proposed 

 by the agency for the forthcoming year. 



The Commission was encouraged by the sense of 

 commitment reflected in the Service's 21 April letter, but 

 felt that, in order to obtain reliable analyses of 

 possible population trends, it was important that 

 immediate steps be undertaken to evaluate: a) the effects 

 of terminating the male harvest; b) the validity of 

 hypotheses linking entanglement with the population decline; 

 c) other possible causes of the decline; and d) the future 

 population size given the present rate of decline. The 

 Commission therefore contracted with an independent scientist 

 to assess available information relating to these points. 

 This research project is discussed in more detail in 

 Chapter II of this Report, and the draft final report, now 

 in the initial stages of review by the Commission and its 

 Committee of Scientific Advisors, will be available in 

 March 1984. 



By mid-1983, it was apparent that the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service would not be able to organize and convene 

 a net entanglement workshop in August 1983, as had been 

 initially stated, and that such a workshop would probably 

 not take place until 1984. On 27 September, the Service, 

 with assistance from the Commission, provided a briefing 

 on entanglement problems for representatives of other 

 governments including Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, 

 the Soviet Union, and Taiwan. Participants in the meeting 

 were supportive of the idea that there was a need to come 



