major pupping sites. To enhance recovery, the National Marine Fisheries Service increased its 

 efforts in 1995, and the Commission held a monk seal recovery program planning meeting to 

 develop recommendations to involved agencies. 



A major focus of attention in 1995 was on restoring the monk seal breeding colony on 

 the Midway Islands. The Navy took steps to clean up contaminants and wildlife hazards from 

 its air station, to transfer ownership of the Islands to the Fish and Wildlife Service for use as 

 a national wildlife refuge, and to develop a funding proposal under the Department of Defense 

 Legacy Program to move rehabilitated monk seals to Midway. Navy efforts to clean up and 

 transfer Midway proceeded well, but the proposal to move seals to Midway, while given high 

 priority, was not funded because late in 1995 funding for the program was rescinded. 



Another important issue in 1995 was assessing the effect of lobster fishing on seal prey 

 at French Frigate Shoals. The largest component of the species' decline has been at this site and 

 appears to be food-related. Other matters receiving attention were expanding and improving 

 efforts to rehabilitate underweight monk seals taken from French Frigate Shoals and reducing 

 attacks by adult male seals that have caused death and serious injuries to female and juvenile 

 seals at Laysan Island. 



Steller Sea Lions — Steller sea lions, currently listed as threatened under the Endangered 

 Species Act, have experienced the most extensive decline of any marine mammal in U.S. waters 

 over the past 30 years. Recent studies indicate there are two stocks of Steller sea lions. The 

 eastern stock ranges from the central Gulf of Alaska to California and appears stable. The 

 western stock, which once included 90 percent of all Steller sea lions, ranges from the central 

 Gulf of Alaska to Japan and has declined 80 percent from 1960 levels. Reduced availability of 

 prey, which includes fish species taken commercially, is hypothesized to be the leading cause 

 of the decline. 



In 1995 the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed to reclassify the western stock 

 as endangered. The Commission supported the Service's reclassification proposal and 

 recommended actions to better assess the causes of the decline and to develop possible 

 management actions. The Service also completed assessments for both Steller sea lion stocks 

 and initiated efforts to develop a co-management agreement with Alaska Natives who take Steller 

 sea lions for subsistence purposes. 



Northern Right Whales — The most endangered marine mammal in U.S. waters is the 

 northern right whale. The largest surviving population, numbering little more than 300 animals, 

 occurs seasonally in three locations off the U.S. Atlantic coast and two areas off Canada. One- 

 third of this population's known mortality is attributed to two human causes — collisions with 

 ships and entanglement in fishing gear. At the recommendation of the Commission, the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service completed a recovery plan in 1994. To help implement its provisions, 

 the Service established two regional interagency teams — a southeast team to protect whales in 

 a winter calving area off Florida and Georgia and a northeast team to protect whales on two 

 summer feeding areas. In 1995 the southeast team continued to coordinate a seasonal early - 



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