National Marine Fisheries Service developed a recommended 

 Program Plan, which it transmitted to the Commission on 

 12 January 1987. The recommended Plan proposed allocating 

 $719,100 among 23 priority research and management tasks, 

 many of which were continuations of projects begun in previous 

 years. 



Twenty-two proposed tasks were grouped into three cate- 

 gories with the remaining task addressing program administra- 

 tion. The first category, education and public awareness, 

 included six recommended tasks: continuing and expanding educa- 

 tion programs for three regions, the North Pacific, Gulf of 

 Mexico, and Northwest Atlantic; evaluating the effectiveness 

 of past education efforts in the North Pacific area; developing 

 a teaching unit on the marine debris problem for elementary 

 and secondary grade levels; and developing a procedures manual 

 for monitoring marine debris on beaches and at sea. The second 

 category, technology development and mitigation, included 

 three tasks: evaluating the feasibility of plastic recycling 

 systems; assessing potential onboard trash incineration systems; 

 and convening a marine debris research steering group meeting. 



The third grouping of tasks included 13 impact assessment 

 tasks: monitoring debris and incidental take associated with 

 high seas squid drift net fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean; 

 continuing to collect and catalogue marine debris hazardous to 

 Hawaiian monk seals and other species in the Northwest Hawaiian 

 Islands; continuing studies of debris accumulation rates on 

 Alaska beaches; monitoring rates of juvenile fur seal entangle- 

 ment on the Pribilof Islands; assessing the incidence of 

 entanglement in fur seal pups and juvenile female fur seals on 

 these Islands; comparing the behavior of entangled and unen- 

 tangled juvenile fur seals; continuing experiments to track 

 and monitor the movement of drift nets in the North Pacific 

 Ocean; monitoring stranded sea turtles along the southeast and 

 east coasts of the United States for evidence of debris-related 

 mortality; continuing efforts to monitor entanglement of 

 seals on the California Channel Islands; analyzing stomach 

 contents of sea turtles collected in the past along the United 

 States 1 east coast for occurrence of persistent debris; attempt- 

 ing to determine decomposition rates of derelict trawl netting 

 on Alaska beaches; assessing the extent to which debris accumu- 

 lates and affects marine life along lines of ocean currents; 

 and assessing the occurrence of plastics in stomachs of sea 

 birds caught incidentally in high seas drift nets. 



On 9 March 1987, the Commission, in consultation with its 

 Committee of Scientific Advisors, wrote to the Service providing 

 comments and recommendations on the Service's Proposed Program 

 Plan. The Commission's letter noted that the program plan was 

 generally well done and that it identified many important tasks 

 needed to better define and resolve specific problems caused 



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