the Convention's Contracting Parties held in London, England, 

 12-16 September 1988. The meeting was attended by representa- 

 tives of all Contracting Parties as well as representatives 

 of Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Peru, and Sweden, who partici- 

 pated as observers by invitation of the Contracting Parties. 

 Representatives of the Commission established under the 

 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living 

 Resources, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research 

 (SCAR) , and the International Union for the Conservation of 

 Nature and Natural Resources also attended the meeting by 

 invitation. A representative of the Marine Mammal Commission 

 attended the meeting and worked with representatives of the 

 Department of State, the National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 the National Science Foundation, and public interest groups 

 to develop and pursue agreement on U.S. positions regarding 

 key issues considered by the meeting. 



A report provided to the meeting by the SCAR Group of 

 Specialists on Seals indicated that an average of 483 seals 

 had been killed or captured in the Antarctic each year from 

 1964 through 1985 and that this level of take could not be 

 considered to have had a significant adverse effect on any 

 seal population. The report further noted that many of these 

 seals had been taken for dog food and that the number of 

 seals taken from 1974-1975 through 1984-1985 was less than 

 half the number taken from 1964-1965 through 1973-1974 due 

 largely to the decline in use of dog teams for transport in 

 the Antarctic. 



The Soviet delegation reported on the experimental sealing 

 conducted during the 1986-1987 austral summer and, based upon 

 the results of this expedition, indicated it was unlikely 

 that commercial sealing would begin in the Antarctic within 

 the next five to ten years, if at all. In this context, 

 other delegations also indicated that their countries were 

 unlikely to engage in commercial sealing in the Antarctic in 

 the foreseeable future. 



Recognizing that additional research is necessary to 

 improve understanding of the biology and ecology of Antarctic 

 seal populations, and that some local populations could be 

 affected by such research, the meeting called upon the 

 Contracting Parties to insure that the number of seals permitted 

 to be killed or captured for scientific research purposes is 

 limited to the minimum number necessary to meet the objectives 

 of the research, and to take all feasible steps to encourage 

 cooperative planning, minimize duplication, and share the 

 results of research that is conducted. 



Meeting participants noted that Weddell seals concentrate 

 along recurring tide cracks in shore-fast ice to pup and 

 breed and that the Convention prohibited the taking of Weddell 



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