MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1991 



and elsewhere to carry such equipment at the earliest possible date to help ensure compliance with 

 closures. 



21 November Commerce; commenting to the National Marine Fisheries Service on a February 1991 workshop to 

 develop guidelines for monitoring programs required to document site-specific impacts fi"om offshore 

 oil and gas exploration; reiterating the Commission's 5 August 1991 letter recommending a follow-up 

 woricshop to review the results of 1991 monitoring programs and to better identify how best to satisfy 

 site-specific monitoriug requirements; and requesting that the Service advise the Commission on its 

 response to the Commission's recommendation. 



3 December Commerce; scientific research permit, Graham A.J. Worthy. 



5 December Commerce; commenting to the U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission on critical 



issues concerning the future of the International Whaling Commission; noting the intentions of some 

 nations to resume commercial whaling under agreed IWC procedures and other issues bearing upon the 

 anticipated move to resume commercial whaling and concluding, among other things, that: (1) the 

 creation of a separate new pro-whaling organization is being contemplated by some nations and this 

 would signal the end of the IWC as an international regulatory body and would not be in the best 

 interests of whale conservation; (2) the conservation of whales would be best accomplished by 

 maintaining the IWC; and (3) the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling should be 

 revised to reflect modem principles of marine living resource conservation including non-consumptive 

 uses of whales; recommending, among other things, that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Administration, in consultation with appropriate Federal agencies and the environmental and scientific 

 communities: (1) seek to renegotiate the International Whaling Convention; (2) adopt the {>osition that 

 non-consumptive values of whales may be of equal, if not of greater importance, than their consump- 

 tive values; (3) develop and present at the 1992 IWC meeting a proposal for implementing revisions to 

 the IWC conservation program to bring it into conformance with the modem principles of living marine 

 resource conservation that have developed in recent years; and (4) take such actions as may be 

 necessary to encourage continued participation of member nations in the IWC; and further recommend- 

 ing that the United States continue to oppose resumption of commercial whaling pending renegotiation 

 of the Convention. 



6 December Commerce; commenting to the National Marine Fisheries Service on Amendment 7 to the Lobster 



Fishery Management Plan for the Westem Pacific Region; noting that the proposed amendment was 

 needed to protect lobster stocks in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands from further overfishing; and 

 recommending that (1) the proposed actions be adopted and implemented promptly and (2) the Service 

 initiate formal consultations with the Fishery Management Council under section 7 of the Endangered 

 Species Act to assess possible relationships between concurrent decline in monk seals and lobster stocks 

 in the Northwestem Hawaiian Islands and the possible need to redefine the optimum yield of lobsters to 

 accoimt for monk seal recovery needs. 



13 December Commerce; commenting to the National Marine Fisheries Service on the Marine Entanglement 

 Research Program Plan for Fiscal Year 1992; and recommending that the Service take steps to 

 implement the plan. 



17 December Commerce; commenting to the National Marine Fisheries Service on research and management needs 

 for Hawaiian monk seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands; noting the need to address issues 

 regarding interactions between monk seals and pelagic fisheries in the Northwestem Hawaiian Islands; 

 further noting that monk seals leave their coastal habitat for long periods of time to forage and that 

 there are no studies that define at-sea distribution of monk seals; and recommending that the Service 

 immediately design a program of tagging monk seals with satellite-linked radio tags for implementation 

 in 1992. 



17 December Interior; scientific research permit, Donald B. Siniff. 



17 December Conmierce; scientific research permit. National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution. 



18 December Commerce; public display permit. Cape Cod Aquarium. 



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