To begin developing program plans for Fiscal Year 1988, 

 the Service convened a meeting in Seattle, Washington, on 30 

 June-1 July 1987. Representatives of the Commission parti- 

 cipated in that meeting, and, based on its results, the Service 

 developed a proposed Program Plan, which was transmitted to 

 the Commission for review on 4 December 1987. The Plan 

 recommended allocating funds among 19 tasks, 11 of which were 

 continuations of projects begun in previous years. Among the 

 projects to be continued were: education and public awareness 

 efforts; monitoring high seas sguid drift net fishing in the 

 North Pacific Ocean; monitoring and destroying accumulations 

 of marine debris hazardous to Hawaiian monk seals in the 

 Northwest Hawaiian Islands; and monitoring entanglement of 

 pinnipeds on the California Channel Islands. 



In addition, the Service proposed eight new projects: 

 planning and organizing a Second International Conference on 

 Marine Debris; assessing the feasibility of using technology 

 for controlled-lifetime plastics to manufacture certain plastic 

 items; assisting a remote fishing port in the Aleutian Islands 

 in developing a system to receive waste fishing gear and 

 other ship-generated garbage returned to port by regional 

 fishermen; two studies on the impact of entanglement of North 

 Pacific fur seals; assessing the effects of pollutants along 

 drift lines (i.e., lines of floating material concentrated by 

 winds, tides, or ocean currents) on sea turtles; and a cooper- 

 ative study with the National Park Service to assess and 

 monitor debris accumulation rates at selected National 

 Seashores. 



The Commission, in consultation with its Committee of 

 Scientific Advisors, reviewed the proposed Program Plan and, 

 by letter of 12 January 1988, provided comments to the Service. 

 In its letter, the Commission noted that the Program Plan was 

 well done and that it addressed high priority actions needed 

 to better define and resolve critical problems. With the 

 exception of two proposed tasks, the Commission concurred 

 with the Service's task and funding proposals and recommended 

 that the Service immediately implement the Plan. 



The two tasks for which the Commission withheld approval 

 involved studies to monitor and assess entanglement rates of 

 North Pacific fur seals. In its letter, the Commission noted 

 that the Service had scheduled a Workshop for the end of 

 January to assess possible methods for determining the potential 

 magnitude of entanglement-related mortality on northern fur 

 seals, and that a final decision on support for the two fur 

 seal proposals should be deferred until after that Workshop. 

 The Commission therefore recommended that the Service evaluate 

 and, as appropriate, revise its fur seal related proposals in 

 light of Workshop results and then resubmit them for review 

 by the Commission. 



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