Humpback Whale Surveys in Stephens Passage, Frederick Sound, 



and Seymour Canal, Alaska 



(C. S. Baker, Ph.D., Gustavus, Alaska) 



Areas in and around Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska, 

 may be important summer feeding grounds for some of the 

 humpback whales that winter, calve, and breed in the coastal 

 waters of Hawaii. The contractor, with support from the 

 Marine Mammal Commission and the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, conducted several summer surveys and photographed 

 humpback whales in Stephens Passage and Frederick Sound, 

 Alaska. He also continued a late fall survey begun in 1979 

 to determine how many humpback whales may remain in Seymour 

 Canal, Alaska, during the winter. The study results will 

 help to identify essential feeding areas and other areas of 

 importance to humpback whales in southeast Alaska, determine 

 when and what age/sex classes of whales migrate to and from 

 Hawaii and Alaska, and provide the basis for detecting and 

 monitoring future population trends. 



Dissemination and Collection of Information Concerning 



Wildlife Conservation Problems Being Caused by Lost and 



Discarded Fishing Gear and Other Marine Debris in 



Australasia 



(P. K. Dayton, Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La 



Jolla, California) 



As described in Chapter VIII, the Commission has 

 initiated a number of actions to determine how to prevent or 

 reduce the impacts of lost and discarded fishing gear and 

 other potentially hazardous marine debris on marine mammals. 

 The objectives of this contract were to: (1) make scientists 

 and others in Australia and New Zealand aware of problems 

 caused by different types of persistent marine debris and 

 steps being taken in the United States to resolve the prob- 

 lems; (2) obtain information on the nature and magnitude of 

 marine debris problems in Australasian waters; and (3) pre- 

 pare for a continuing dialogue on the issue. To meet the 

 contract objectives, the contractor, while at the Australian 

 Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, Australia, pre- 

 sented seminars on the problem, distributed written material 

 concerning U.S. programs, and surveyed a number of marine 

 ecologists and other scientists in Australia and New Zealand. 

 In the process, the contractor met with investigators carry- 

 ing out entanglement and debris-related research in both 

 countries and thereby established the groundwork for substan- 

 tially expanded international cooperative efforts now 

 underway. 



