plan was much improved and that, based on the expanded project 

 description and a summary of completed and remaining project 

 activities, it agreed with the Service that it would be 

 appropriate to fund the project under the Fiscal Year 1988 

 Marine Entanglement Research Program. 



For Fiscal Year 1989, Congress again appropriated $750,000 

 to the National Marine Fisheries Service for its Entanglement 

 Program. As in previous years, the Service convened a meeting 

 to review the status and results of research undertaken to 

 date and to identify priority tasks for future funding. The 

 meeting was held 9-10 June 1988 in Seattle, and a representative 

 of the Marine Mammal Commission participated. Based on meeting 

 results, the Service developed a proposed program plan for 

 Fiscal Year 1989, which was forwarded to the Commission for 

 its review and concurrence on 6 December 1988. 



The Service's recommended program plan proposed allocating 

 $702,700 among 21 tasks, including thirteen continuing research 

 projects and eight new research tasks. The tasks to be 

 continued included: support for Marine Debris Information 

 Offices in Seattle, Washington, and Washington, D.C.; preparing 

 for and convening the Second International Conference on 

 Marine Debris; removing marine debris from beaches frequented 

 by Hawaiian monk seals; monitoring high seas drift net fisheries 

 in the North Pacific Ocean; determining the effect of plastic 

 particle ingestion on survival of larval fish; determining the 

 effects of marine pollution on juvenile pelagic sea turtles; 

 assessing the role of entanglement as a cause of sea turtle 

 deaths; documenting survivorship rates for juvenile male fur 

 seals entangled in marine debris; determining the effects of 

 ingested plastic on albatross; supporting marine debris surveys 

 at selected National Seashores; surveys of debris accumulation 

 on Alaska beaches; and monitoring entanglement of pinnipeds 

 on the Channel Islands. 



The eight new tasks proposed in the Service's recom- 

 mended Fiscal Year 1989 Plan included: reproducing educational 

 materials for distribution to the public and industry groups 

 through existing domestic and international offices and 

 programs; developing a marine debris education program for 

 shipping and cruise line industries; developing and maintaining 

 computerized databases of information collected during voluntary 

 beach clean-ups; convening a workshop on marine debris to 

 develop advice on mitigation measures, particularly for 

 fisheries; experiments on ways to mitigate effects of "ghost" 

 gill nets; determining the ingestion of marine plastics by 

 western Atlantic sea birds; assessing factors bearing on the 

 length of time different types of floating marine debris 

 remain at the surface where they can be particularly hazardous 

 to seals, sea turtles, and other surface-living species; and 

 developing a system to record and analyze benthic marine 



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