The Commission therefore recommended that the Service: 

 (1) clearly indicate any assumptions and uncertainties 

 concerning the possible effects of offshore oil and gas 

 exploration activities on gray and bowhead whales; (2) specify 

 the additional baseline research and monitoring programs that 

 would be required to verify the predicted effects and detect 

 any unforeseen effects in time to insure that they too are 

 negligible; (3) provide for issuing letters of authorization 

 to each company authorized to take bowhead whales, gray whales, 

 and/or other species under the exemption and make continued 

 authorization after the first year contingent, among other 

 things, on the submission of reports indicating when, where, 

 how, and how many animals may have been affected by the 

 activities during the preceding year; (4) make it clear that, 

 because they likely would be greater in duration and scale, 

 it may not follow that the effects of disturbance and noise 

 from development and production activities would also be 

 judged negligible; and (5) as possible, indicate the additional 

 information that might be required to accurately predict the 

 possible direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of development 

 and production activities on the survival and productivity of 

 bowhead whales, gray whales, and any other species or population 

 stocks covered by the exemption. 



187 



