The Service considered new information and further comments 

 bearing on the matter and concluded that available information 

 did not support the hypothesis that the carrying capacity for 

 fur seals had declined to levels below that which existed in 

 the 1940s and early 1950s and that the Pribilof Islands' fur 

 seal population was below its optimum sustainable population 

 level. Accordingly, on 18 May 1988, the Service published 

 its findings and conclusions in the Federal Register and, 

 effective 17 June 1988, the Pribilof Islands' population of 

 North Pacific fur seals was formally added to the list of 

 species and population stocks designated as depleted under 

 the Marine Mammal Protection Act. 



Research Activities 



As noted above, the cause or causes of the fur seal 

 population decline on the Pribilof Islands is uncertain, but 

 may be related to entanglement of seals in lost and discarded 

 fishing gear. To provide a basis for evaluating possible 

 methods of assessing the magnitude of fur seal mortality 

 caused by entanglement in such marine debris, the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service convened a workshop on 28-29 January 

 1988 at the Northwest and Alaska Fisheries Center in Seattle, 

 Washington. Participants in the Workshop, which included 

 representatives of the Marine Mammal Commission, reviewed 

 proposed research on the role of entanglement in the fur seal 

 population decline and considered whether research could and 

 should be carried out to determine if entanglement in trawl 

 webbing significantly adds to at-sea mortality. 



Preliminary results of the Workshop suggested that the 

 highest priority research needs included continued monitoring 

 of population trends by annual counts of pups and by tagging 

 fur seal pups to estimate survival rates for juvenile seals 

 to ages three and four. In addition, high priority was assigned 

 to research to: estimate the percent of juvenile male seals 

 entangled; estimate the survival of juvenile male seals found 

 entangled in small net fragments on Pribilof Islands' beaches; 

 and determine if differences exist between haul-out patterns 

 of entangled and non-entangled juvenile males. A final report 

 on the findings and conclusions of the Workshop had not been 

 made available by the end of 1988. 



By letter of 22 February 1988, the Service asked the 

 Commission for comments on a request by the Service's Northwest 

 and Alaska Fisheries Center to modify an existing permit for 

 research on North Pacific fur seals. In previous comments on 

 the permit provided on 18 June 1987, the Commission recommended 

 that authorization by the Service to take fur seals in 

 conjunction with certain research activities during 1988-1992 

 be deferred pending receipt and evaluation of a comprehensive 

 fur seal conservation plan. The permit modification request 



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