debris in the Eastern Bering Sea based on debris caught during 

 annual trawl surveys for fish and shellfish. 



On 23 December 1988, the Commission, in consultation 

 with its Committee of Scientific Advisors, wrote to the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service noting that, with one exception, the 

 Commission agreed that the proposed task descriptions were 

 appropriate and that they offered a sound basis for implementing 

 priority actions. The one exception involved support for 

 monitoring high seas sguid drift net fisheries. The task 

 proposed placing U.S. observers aboard foreign commercial 

 squid fishing vessels in the North Pacific Ocean to monitor 

 fishing areas, times, catch rates, bycatch, gear loss, etc . 



Placement of the observers had been arranged through 

 negotiations with Japanese officials last winter. It was the 

 Commission's understanding, however, that agreements reached 

 through those negotiations may have been affected by recent 

 developments prohibiting Japanese salmon drift net vessels 

 from fishing in U.S. waters and that the agreements may have 

 been voided. Therefore, the Commission asked that it be 

 advised by the Service as to whether the proposed work was 

 still possible and, if the study had to be revised or funding 

 had to be reallocated to other priority work, to provide the 

 Commission with modified or new task descriptions for work to 

 be supported with funds proposed for the squid drift net 

 monitoring study. The Commission concurred with the allocation 

 of funds to the other tasks proposed in the Fiscal Year 1989 

 Program Plan and at the end of 1988, it looked forward to the 

 Service's response regarding the high seas squid fishery. 



Domestic Policy Council Task Force on Marine Debris 



During 1987, Administration and Congressional leaders 

 recognized the need to assess problems being caused by 

 persistent marine debris and to develop a comprehensive, 

 coordinated Federal strategy to address those problems. As 

 discussed in the previous Annual Report, growing concern 

 about the problem led the White House Domestic Policy Council 

 to establish the Interagency Marine Debris Task Force, chaired 

 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

 Other participants on the Task Force included representatives 

 of the Coast Guard, the Council on Environmental Quality, the 

 Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Interior, 

 the Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency, 

 the Marine Mammal Commission, the Navy, the Office of Management 

 and Budget, and the White House Office of Domestic Policy. 



The Task Force was charged with preparing a report that 

 assessed the problem and the need for research, identified 

 potential reduction measures, and suggested alternative actions 

 to address the problem of plastic marine pollution. On 23 



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