As discussed in Chapter III of this Report, the Service 

 convened its Workshop on fur seal entanglement-related research 

 needs on 28-29 January 1988 at the Northwest and Alaska 

 Fisheries Center in Seattle. Participants reviewed possible 

 and proposed research on the role of marine debris in the fur 

 seal population decline and, based on preliminary results 

 from the Workshop, the Service developed three new or revised 

 research proposals related to fur seal entanglement. The 

 three proposed studies involved: (1) continuing an existing 

 study to collect and synthesize available data on entanglement 

 of northern fur seals in marine debris; (2) tagging and 

 monitoring entangled juvenile male fur seals to assess 

 survivorship rates; and (3) comparing haul-out patterns of 

 entangled and unentangled juvenile male fur seals to help 

 interpret tag resighting data. On 3 May 1988, the Service 

 provided the Commission with details on the research proposals 

 for its review and approval. 



The Commission, in consultation with its Committee of 

 Scientific Advisors, reviewed the three proposals and, by 

 letter of 27 May, provided comments to the Service. In its 

 letter, the Commission noted that it agreed with the Service 

 that work should proceed on all three studies. However, the 

 Commission noted that funding for the studies should be provided 

 by funds from the Service's fur seal research program rather 

 than the Marine Entanglement Research Program unless it was 

 clear that all other fur seal research was of higher priority. 

 Therefore, the Commission conditioned its concurrence for 

 allocating Marine Entanglement Research Program funds to the 

 three fur seal studies on a determination by the Service that 

 no research supported under the fur seal research program in 

 Fiscal Year 1988 was of lower priority. 



In addition, the Commission noted in its letter that it 

 was not clear whether the proposed study to synthesize 

 information on fur seal entanglement could be accomplished 

 within given time and cost estimates. The Commission therefore 

 recommended that the Service adopt a phased approach in which 

 most funding would be withheld pending development of a detailed 

 project description and review and acceptance of the project 

 design by the Commission and other appropriate reviewers. 



On 7 July 1988, the Service responded to the Commission's 

 27 May letter. In its letter, the Service stated that all 

 Fiscal Year 1988 fur seal research ranked higher in priority 

 than the proposed entanglement studies and that it therefore 

 planned to fund the three fur seal projects with Fiscal 1988 

 entanglement funds. In addition, the Service provided the 

 Commission with a detailed project outline for the study to 

 synthesize information on fur seal entanglement. On 1 August, 

 the Commission, in consultation with its Committee of Scientific 

 Advisors, wrote to the Service noting that the detailed program 



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