reduction, the Secretary shall determine whether it would be 

 preferable to capture and transport the excess animals to 

 another location within the species' historic range, rather 

 than killing them. 



Summary of Commission Actions 



The Marine Mammal Commission, in consultation with its 

 Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals, has devoted 

 considerable attention and funds to efforts to identify and 

 determine how best to resolve problems caused by marine mammal/ 

 fishery interactions. In December 1977, the Commission convened 

 a workshop to gather and review available information on the 

 nature, extent, and impacts of interactions between fisheries 

 and marine mammal populations in Oregon, Washington, California, 

 Alaska, and Hawaii. The workshop concluded that the most 

 acute problem seemed to involve seals, sea lions, and salmon 

 gill net fisheries in the Copper River Delta area of Alaska 

 and in the Columbia River area of Washington and Oregon (for 

 more information, see Mate, 1980, Appendix B) . In response 

 to the workshop findings, the Commission, among other things, 

 provided funds to initiate assessment of the interactions in 

 the Copper River Delta (see Matkin and Fay 1980, Appendix B) 

 and to begin development of a plan to assess and determine 

 how to resolve the problems being caused by interactions in the 

 Columbia River and adjacent areas. 



As noted in previous Annual Reports, additional studies 

 subsequently were initiated by the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and 

 the States of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California. 

 These studies were undertaken to better determine the nature 

 and extent of interactions between certain fisheries and 

 marine mammals in the Bering Sea, in waters off the U.S. west 

 coast from Washington to California, and off New England. 

 The studies were not planned or carried out cooperatively 

 and, in October 1981, the Commission convened a second workshop 

 to review and determine what steps should be taken to improve 

 and coordinate ongoing and planned studies. 



Participants in the 1981 workshop concluded that: (1) it 

 is not possible to make broad generalizations about marine 

 mammal/fishery interactions in different areas and each situ- 

 ation must therefore be considered individually; (2) because 

 of the potentially complex nature of indirect (food chain) 

 interactions among marine mammals, fisheries, and fish and 

 shellfish resources, there is a substantial risk of making bad 

 management decisions; (3) to minimize the risk of making bad 

 management decisions, marine mammals and fisheries should be 

 managed cooperatively in areas where they may be competing 

 for, or otherwise affecting, the same fish or shellfish stocks; 



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