tation with its Committee of Scientific Advisors, to advise 

 Federal and State agencies as to steps that should be taken 

 to better protect and conserve marine mammals and their habitat 

 in the coastal waters of California. 



Publication of Contract Reports 

 (National Technical Information Service) 



Many of the Commission's contract reports are of interest 

 to organizations and individuals outside the Commission and 

 may be of value for many years to come. To assure that such 

 reports are readily available, the Commission contracts with 

 the National Technical Information Service, part of the Depart- 

 ment of Commerce, to publish and archive selected reports. 

 Commission reports available from the Service are listed in 

 Appendix B of this Report. 



Special Research Concerns for FY 1988 



As noted in this and previous Annual Reports, a substan- 

 tial amount of additional research is needed to more effec- 

 tively assess and determine how to deal with problems affecting 

 the conservation of marine mammals and their habitats world- 

 wide. As examples, additional research is needed to: 



identify and determine how best to protect critical marine 

 mammal habitats (e.g. , breeding and feeding areas of 

 manatees and dugongs, Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk 

 seals, river dolphins, and humpback and right whales) 

 that are being destroyed or damaged by human activities; 



determine the cause (s) and how to stop and reverse the 

 continuing decline of North Pacific fur seal, northern 

 sea lion, and harbor porpoise populations in the North 

 Pacific and Bering Sea and the continued die-off of bottle- 

 nose dolphins along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast; 



identify and evaluate the relative costs and benefits of 

 possible alternative means for preventing or reducing 

 the at-sea loss and discard of fishing gear and other 

 persistent debris that pose hazards to marine mammals, 

 sea birds, turtles, fish, and mariners; 



identify and evaluate the relative costs and benefits of 

 possible means for avoiding or minimizing the effects of 

 marine mammal/ fishery interactions on the affected marine 

 mammals, fisheries, and fish stocks; 



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