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gear damage, fish damage, and fish loss. Passage of the Act 

 in 1972 placed a moratorium on such taking and, as a result, 

 over the past decade, animals in some areas appear to have 

 become more numerous and/or bolder in their approach to 

 fishermen and fishing gear. 



Although the tuna/porpoise issue is the most widely 

 known marine mammal/fishery interaction problem, it was 

 apparent by the mid-1970s that other marine mammal/fishery 

 conflicts deserved attention as well. In 1977, the Commission 

 sponsored a workshop to examine some of these interactions 

 and workshop results confirmed that there was a potentially 

 acute problem in the Pacific Northwest involving seals, sea 

 lions, and the salmon gill net fisheries in the Copper River 

 Delta area of Alaska and the Columbia River in Washington 

 and Oregon. On the basis of the workshop recommendations, 

 the Commission provided funds to initiate a study of marine 

 mammal/fishery interactions in the Copper River Delta/Prince 

 William Sound area of Alaska, and this work was completed in 

 1978. 



The Commission also provided funds to develop a plan to 

 start investigating apparent conflicts in the Columbia River 

 and adjacent waters, and a study was begun in 198 by the 

 Washington Department of Game, in cooperation with the 

 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and with funding 

 provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Following 

 a review of the first year of work, the Commission in 1981 

 transferred funds to the Service to support additional work 

 by the Washington State researchers on the number, movement, 

 and diets of harbor seals in the Columbia River and adjacent 

 areas . 



At about this time, the Commission, among others, 

 became concerned that the several ongoing studies of marine 

 mammal/fishery interactions might not be providing either 

 comparable data or the types of information needed to resolve 

 the problems. This concern resulted in a Commission decision 

 to convene a follow-up workshop in October 1981 to review 

 and coordinate ongoing efforts in the field and to determine 

 whether the necessary information was being obtained. 



Based on workshop recommendations and its own findings, 

 the Commission concluded that ongoing research by the 

 Washington Department of Game should be augmented to expedite 

 identification and evaluation of possible means of mitigating 

 marine mammal/ fishery conflicts. In August 1982, the Commission 



