determining the extent to which marine debris accumulates and 

 affects marine life along the margins of ocean currents and 

 frontal zones; intensifying the collection and analysis of 

 stranded sea turtles along the Gulf of Mexico and Hawaii 

 coasts to assess entanglement-related injury and mortality 

 rates; and overall program management and administration. 



In addition, support for the following eight new projects 

 was proposed: planning and organization for a second inter- 

 national workshop on the fate and impact of marine debris to 

 be held before March 1989; an assessment of the feasibility 

 of manufacturing certain plastic items using technology for 

 controlled-lifetime plastics; assisting a remote fishing port 

 (Unalaska) in the Aleutian Islands with efforts to plan for 

 and develop systems to receive waste fishing gear and other 

 ship-generated garbage returned to port by regional fishermen; 

 two projects to assess the impact of entanglement on North 

 Pacific fur seals; an assessment of the effects of pollutants 

 along drift lines (i.e., lines of floating material concentrated 

 by winds, tides, or ocean currents) on sea turtles; and a 

 cooperative study with the National Park Service to assess 

 and monitor debris accumulation rates at national seashores. 



At the end of the year, the Commission and its Committee 

 of Scientific Advisors were completing their review of the 

 Service's recommended Program Plan. Based on a preliminary 

 assessment, the Commission again found the Program Plan to be 

 well conceived and anticipated advising the Service, early in 

 1988, of its concurrence with all but the proposed fur seal 

 studies. As noted in the North Pacific fur seal section in 

 Chapter II, the latter studies will be considered at a January 

 1988 workshop scheduled by the Service to identify priority 

 research needs related to assessing fur seal entanglement 

 rates. Thus, the Commission expects to ask the Service to 

 provide it with final proposals for these studies immediately 

 after that Workshop. Among other things, the Commission also 

 expects to recommend that: the project plan for port reception 

 facilities at Unalaska be expanded to consider similar needs 

 at other regional ports ( e.g. , in the Pribilof Islands and 

 Port Mollar on the Aleutian peninsula) ; and that the cooperative 

 study with the National Park Service to monitor marine debris 

 at national seashores be expanded to include other protected 

 areas such as coastal national wildlife refuges and national 

 marine sanctuaries. 



National Marine Pollution Program Plan 



Pursuant to the National Ocean Pollution Planning Act of 

 1978 as amended, the National Marine Pollution Program Office 

 of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is 

 responsible for preparing a five-year Federal plan for ocean 

 pollution research, development, and monitoring. The plan, 



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