within the Service, and anticipated making a revised draft 

 available for public review early in 1988. 



The Entanglement Workshop 



By letter of 16 October 1987, the National Marine Mammal 

 Laboratory sent the Commission a draft agenda and related 

 material for the Northern Fur Seal Entanglement Workshop, 

 which was scheduled to be held at the Northwest and Alaska 

 Fisheries Center on 17-19 November 1987. The letter advised 

 the Commission that, because of timing problems, funds for 

 the workshop had been committed without first obtaining Commis- 

 sion concurrence as specified in the Commission's letter of 

 7 July 1987. On 5 November 1987, the Commission received a 

 formal announcement of the workshop from the organization 

 contracted by the Service to make the workshop arrangements. 



From the information provided, it was not clear that the 

 workshop had been structured so as to most effectively identify 

 and address key issues or that the persons able to attend the 

 workshop on such short notice would have the range of expertise 

 necessary to address the issues. Because of these uncertain- 

 ties, the Commission, by letter of 9 November 1987, recommended 

 that the workshop be postponed until the latter part of February 

 1988 so as to provide time for consultations with the Commission 

 and others. 



The Service concurred with the Commission's recommendation 

 that the workshop be postponed and rescheduled it for 28-3 

 January 1988. By letter of 25 November 1987, the Service 

 sent the Commission a revised workshop agenda and related 

 materials for review and comment. The Commission, in consul- 

 tation with its Committee of Scientific Advisors, reviewed 

 these documents during its meeting in Miami, Florida, on 

 10-12 December 1987 and, by letter of 29 December 1987, for- 

 warded its preliminary comments on the revised workshop plans. 



The Commission will work with the Service in early 1988 

 to finalize plans for the workshop. 



The 1987 Subsistence Harvest 



As noted earlier, the Interim Convention on Conservation 

 of North Pacific Fur Seals expired in October 1984. In the 

 absence of an international agreement binding upon the United 

 States, management authority for fur seals on the Pribilof 

 Islands is derived exclusively from domestic laws, including 

 the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Fur Seal Act of 

 1966. Under these laws, the taking of fur seals for commercial 

 purposes is prohibited. A take by Alaska Natives for subsis- 

 tence purposes, however, is authorized under certain conditions. 

 Under the authority of these two laws, the National Marine 



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