of performance criteria for assessing the effectiveness of 

 different management strategies with respect to obtaining the 

 Convention objectives. The Group met again during the 1988 

 meetings of the Commission and Scientific Committee for the 

 Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. At this 

 meeting, the Working Group concluded that it would be desirable 

 to develop operational definitions for depletion and for 

 target recovery levels for depleted populations. It also 

 noted that conservation approaches have to consider both 

 short- and long-time scales and that the practical utility of 

 some approaches would depend on the ability of the Ecosystem 

 Monitoring Program, described earlier, to detect, quantify, 

 and differentiate between natural and harvest-caused changes 

 in the species and populations being harvested, and in dependent 

 and associated species and populations. The Working Group 

 requested that the Scientific Committee provide advice on the 

 ability of the Ecosystem Monitoring Program to detect and 

 differentiate between naturally caused and harvest-caused 

 changes in selected predator and prey species, and suggested 

 that development of the program continue on an experimental 

 basis until it is known whether a practically feasible 

 monitoring program for predators, prey, and environmental 

 parameters can be implemented at a reasonable cost. 



The Commission agreed that there was a continuing need 

 to identify and evaluate possible alternative approaches for 

 achieving the objectives of Convention Article II and directed 

 that the Working Group communicate during the inter-sessional 

 period to help develop an agreed program of work. 



The U.S. Antarctic Marine Living Resources Research Program 



The Antarctic Marine Living Resources Convention Act of 

 1984 establishes the domestic authority necessary for the 

 United States to implement the Convention on the Conservation 

 of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Among other things, 

 the Act directs that the National Science Foundation continue 

 support of basic marine research in the Antarctic and that 

 the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary 

 of State, the Director of the National Science Foundation, 

 and appropriate officials of other Federal agencies, such as 

 the Marine Mammal Commission, prepare, implement, and annually 

 update a plan for directed research necessary to effectively 

 implement the Convention. In response to this directive, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service has prepared and begun to 

 implement a plan for directed marine living resource research 

 in the Southern Ocean. The plan was developed in consultation 

 with the National Science Foundation, the Marine Mammal 

 Commission, other Federal agencies, knowledgeable scientists 

 in the United States and abroad, representatives of the U.S. 



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