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and to facilitate recovery of materials already discarded; 

 the Service request that the Department of State take necessary 

 steps to gather similar information with respect to the 

 domestic authorities of other involved countries; the Service 

 undertake studies of ways to mark nets to show their provenance 

 in the event of recovery; the Service immediately start 

 identifying critical data gaps so as to develop such programs 

 as may be needed to determine the types, quantity, size, and 

 distribution of net fragments and other debris and the 

 likely fate of these materials; and the Service assign a 

 high-level administrator/scientist the responsibility for 

 overseeing and coordinating all aspects of an organized, 

 systematic attack on the net entanglement problem. 



Subsequently, the Commission was advised that the 

 Service would accept the $4,000 offered it to convene a 

 steering group to plan the net entanglement workshop, that 

 the workshop was tentatively scheduled for October 1984, and 

 that the Service hoped to hold the first meeting of the 

 steering group in January 1984. The Commission subsequently 

 transferred the funds to the Sea Grant Program Office at the 

 University of Hawaii for a steering group meeting. 



On 28 December 1983, the Commission received a response 

 from the Service to its 18 November letter and recommendations. 

 In its response, dated 23 December, the Service noted that: 

 it would consider the Commission's suggestions; it concurred 

 with the Commission that the task of greatest immediate 

 importance was to convene a net entanglement workshop; the 

 Honolulu Laboratory had agreed to assume planning responsibility; 

 the Sea Grant Office of the University of Hawaii would be 

 participating; and the Commission's offer of funds was 

 accepted and these should be transferred to the Hawaii Sea 

 Grant Office. 



On 3 December, the Commission responded to the Service's 

 23 December letter, noting that the recommended actions in 

 the Commission's 18 November letter were formal recommendations 

 to the National Marine Fisheries Service made pursuant to 

 Section 202(d) of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, 

 as amended; that the Commission expected a formal response 

 to each recommendation and, if recommendations were not to 

 be adopted and followed, a detailed explanation was to be 

 provided the Commission. 



