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Preparations for the 1984 meetings — A meeting of 

 the Ad Hoc U.S. Scientific Working Group on the Antarctic 

 was held in Boston, Massachusetts, on 2 December 1983 to 

 begin preparation for the September 1984 meetings of the 

 Commission and Scientific Committee and the June 1984 meeting 

 of the Data Working Group. This meeting, like previous 

 meetings, was organized and sponsored cooperatively by the 

 Marine Mammal Commission, the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, the Department of State, and the National Science 

 Foundation. As in the past, the Commission provided support 

 for the preparation and review of the meeting report (see 

 Chapter II) . A second meeting probably will be held in 

 April or May to review progress in preparing for the September 

 1984 Antarctic Commission/Committee meetings and. to consider 

 scientific and technical matters bearing on the minerals 

 negotiations, described below. 



Implementing legislation — Hearings were held before 

 the House of Representative's Committee on Merchant Marine 

 and Fisheries, Subcommittee on Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation 

 and the Environment, on 30 June 1983 to solicit views on 

 proposed legislation (H.R. 3416). This bill would establish 

 the domestic mechanism necessary to allow the United States 

 to fully participate and to comply with the terms and provisions 

 of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine 

 Living Resources, The Marine Mammal Commission testified in 

 support of the proposed legislation and, in its testimony, 

 called attention to the importance of research and to steps 

 that the Commission has taken to better define critical 

 research needs. Among other things, the Commission cited 

 the report resulting from a 1981 National Academy of Sciences 

 study which pointed out: the need for a strong program in 

 Antarctic biological oceanography; the importance of studies 

 of the physical, chemical, and behavioral processes underlying 

 the formation and persistence of krill aggregations; the 

 need to understand processes near the pack ice edge; the 

 potential benefits of remote sensing, moored instruments, 

 drifting buoys, and towed samplers; and the need for a new 

 ice-strengthened research vessel or vessels. 



At the end of 1983, H.R. 3416 had been reported to the 

 House of Representatives by the Merchant Marine and Fisheries 

 Committee, but was still pending before the Committee on Foreign 

 Affairs, to which it was also referred. 



