tion. During the meeting, 12 papers, including a paper 

 prepared by a member of the Commission staff (see Laist, In 

 Press in Appendix C) , were presented on various aspects of 

 the plastic pollution issue. To ensure that results of these 

 two sessions are made available to the international com- 

 munity, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 

 Office of Oceanography and Marine Assessment is coordinating 

 efforts to include selected papers in a special edition of 

 the Marine Pollution Bulletin to be published in 1987. 



The results of the Honolulu workshop and, more recently, 

 the ocean dumping symposium, indicated that significant 

 progress was being made to assess the problem of marine 

 debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Considerably less 

 information, however, was available for other ocean areas. 

 Therefore, to improve understanding of the problem in other 

 oceans and to exchange relevant information, the Commission 

 contracted for two studies to address the problem in the area 

 of Australasia and the North Atlantic Ocean. In Australasia, 

 the contractor sought to gather available data on the problem 

 and, through meetings with scientists and government offi- 

 cials, to share information on ongoing efforts in the United 

 States. The results indicate that few regional studies of 

 the problem have been conducted to date. However, as 

 awareness of the problem increases through exchange of 

 information with scientists from other countries, further 

 studies may be undertaken to provide a better basis for 

 assessing and mitigating impacts. 



The North Atlantic study seeks to obtain available 

 information on the sources, fates, and effects of marine 

 debris in the Northwest Atlantic, the North Sea, the Gulf of 

 Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Information on measures that have 

 been or are being taken to document and mitigate the problem 

 will be collected. Although the final report is not expected 

 until 1987, preliminary results indicate that little pub- 

 lished information is available relevant to the study area. 

 As an additional effort to focus international attention on 

 the problem, the Commission also encouraged the Department of 

 State to have one of its staff members, who had been detailed 

 to the International Maritime Organization, to devote his 

 energies to the issue, and this was done with good effect in 

 1986. 



Further efforts to share information on the problem with 

 the international community were taken when a Commission 

 representative presented papers and held informal discussions 

 in New Zealand in November 1986. These took place at the 

 University of Canterbury, the University of Auckland, the 

 Fisheries Research Division of the Ministry of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries, the Ministry of Conservation, and other 

 government offices. 



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