- 38 - 



Service and offering to contribute Commission funds to 

 assist in organizing the workshop. By early in 1983, 

 however, it was apparent that no progress was being realized. 

 Therefore, planning and progress with respect to a net 

 entanglement workshop were reviewed in detail at the February 

 1983 meeting of the Commission and its Committee of Scientific 

 Advisors. At that time, the Commission also circulated 

 draft terms of reference for a workshop designed to determine: 

 the types, probable sources, and amounts of fishing gear 

 that have been and are being lost, discarded, or otherwise 

 accumulated each year in various areas; the species and 

 numbers of marine mammals, birds, turtles, etc., apparently 

 being caught and killed in such gear; steps that should be 

 taken to prevent, reduce, and/or better document mortality 

 from entanglement; and domestic and international authorities 

 that might be of use in addressing the problem. Subsequent 

 to its meeting in Honolulu, the Commission, in consultation 

 with its Committee, continued to pursue the workshop idea 

 with Service officials at Washington headquarters and elsewhere. 

 On 13 April 1983, the Commission wrote to the Service and 

 summarized points on which agreement had been reached during 

 informal discussions. 



In its 13 April letter, the Commission noted, among 

 other things, that: because of the gravity of the entanglement 

 situation, particularly with respect to the North Pacific 

 fur seal, time was of the essence; a workshop should be 

 held in August 1983 in Hawaii; the workshop should be 

 international in character and participation should be 

 sought from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Canada, and the 

 Soviet Union; the Service should seek commitments for support 

 of the workshop; the possibility of having the Hawaii Sea 

 Grant Program run the workshop should be considered; and the 

 Service should take steps to pull the meeting together as 

 quickly as possible. In its letter, the Commission offered 

 to provide funds to the Service to convene a steering group 

 to immediately begin workshop planning. 



The letter was accompanied by a detailed scope of work 

 which noted, among other points, that the ultimate objective 

 of the workshop should be to identify actions that could be 

 taken to prevent further dumping and, to the extent possible, 

 loss of materials in which fur seals and other marine mammals 

 could become entangled as well as to clean up or reduce the 

 amount of accumulated debris in areas inhabited by fur seals 

 and other marine mammals. 



By letter of 21 April 1983, the Service indicated that 

 it shared the Commission's desire for prompt and effective 

 action to deal with the serious and continuing decline of 



