animals during the 1980/1981 fishing season to about 300 in 

 1983. Subsequent monitoring suggests an incidental take of 

 more than 200 harbor porpoise a year during 1984 and 1985. 



Efforts by the Commission and others to focus attention 

 on the situation have been discussed in previous Annual 

 Reports. As has been noted, the impact of the incidental 

 take depends, in part, on the size and age/sex composition of 

 the population or populations being affected, as well as the 

 number, age, sex, and reproductive status of the animals 

 being taken. On the west coast of North America, harbor 

 porpoise are found in coastal waters from central California 

 northward to Alaska. However, it is not known whether the 

 harbor porpoise found in the affected area are part of a 

 single large population or constitute one or more small, 

 local populations. 



In 1985, the Commission and its Committee of Scientific 

 Advisors developed a proposed scope of work for a radio- 

 tagging and tracking project aimed at obtaining information 

 required to determine whether there are one or more discrete 

 populations in the area affected by the fisheries. On 6 

 December 1985, the Commission forwarded the proposed scope of 

 work to the National Marine Fisheries Service. In its cover 

 letter, the Commission recommended that the proposed project 

 be carried out by the Service. To help defray costs, the 

 Commission offered to transfer funds to the Service to 

 initiate the first phase of the project during Fiscal Year 

 1986, with the understanding that the Service would provide 

 the funding in subsequent years to complete the project. 



On 15 January 1986, the Service responded to the 

 Commission's 6 December letter and proposed scope of work. 

 In its response the Service noted that, before making commit- 

 ments for long-term funding, a feasibility study should be 

 undertaken to determine if harbor porpoise can be effectively 

 captured, tagged, and tracked so as to generate data useful 

 for assessing long-range and long-term patterns of movement. 

 The Service further noted that its Southwest Fisheries Center 

 had contracted for an investigation of contaminant loads in 

 stranded harbor porpoise and that, if the results demon- 

 strated regional patterns in contaminant loads, this might 

 provide a less expensive means for differentiating possible 

 movement patterns and stock discreteness of harbor porpoise 

 populations off the west coast. It further noted that a 

 preliminary assessment of this method was expected to be 

 available in March 1986. 



On 26-28 March 1986, the Commission, in cooperation with 

 other Federal and State agencies, convened a "Workshop on 

 Measures to Address Marine Mammal/Fisheries Interactions in 

 California." The findings and recommendations of Workshop 



132 



