MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1995 



Interior, the Marine Mammal Commission, the State 

 of Alaska, and Alaska Native organizations, "under- 

 take a scientific research program to monitor the 

 health and stability of the Bering Sea marine ecosys- 

 tem and to resolve uncertainties concerning the causes 

 of population declines of marine mammals, seabirds, 

 and other living resources of that marine ecosystem. " 

 In partial response to this directive, the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, in consultation with Alaska 

 Native organizations, developed a draft study plan. 



The draft study plan was provided to the Commis- 

 sion and others for comment in March 1995. The 

 Commission, in consultation with its Committee of 

 Scientific Advisors, provided comments to the Nation- 

 al Marine Fisheries Service by letter of 17 April 

 1995. The Commission noted that the descriptions of 

 and rationale for some of the tasks listed in the draft 

 plan were not clear. The Commission also noted that 

 it was not clear whether the likelihood of being able 

 to determine the cause of the observed population 

 declines had been considered in the design of the draft 

 plan. The Commission suggested reformulating the 

 study objectives to make it easier to relate specific 

 research and monitoring tasks to the objectives. 



The Service advised the Commission by letter of 

 18 April 1995 that a workshop was to be held in 

 Anchorage, Alaska, on 14-15 June to review the draft 

 plan. A number of key participants could not attend 

 on those dates, and the workshop was delayed until 2- 

 3 November 1995. Participants included representa- 

 tives of the Commission, the National Marine Fisher- 

 ies Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of 

 Alaska, the University of Alaska, and Alaska Native 

 groups. The workshop report is expected to be 

 completed by mid-March 1996. 



processes, living resources, and oceanographic fea- 

 tures. The Convention entered into force in 1992 

 with four initial members: Canada, Japan, the 

 People's Republic of China, and the United States. 

 Russia and Korea joined during 1995. 



At the second annual meeting in October 1993, 

 PICES established a working group on the Bering 

 Sea. This working group has identified key scientific 

 issues relating to the Bering Sea, held a one-day 

 symposium, "Oceanography and Fisheries of the 

 Bering Sea," at the fourth annual PICES meeting in 

 Quingdao, China, in October 1995, and is undertaking 

 preparation of a review volume on the Bering Sea. 

 This will be published along with the proceedings 

 from the 1995 symposium as two separate volumes. 



PICES is undertaking a program called "Climate 

 Change and Carrying Capacity." Background infor- 

 mation was brought together at a symposium held 

 with the third annual meeting in Nemuro, Japan, in 

 October 1994. Since then PICES has established a 

 steering committee for the program, which is now 

 called PICES-GLOBEC, and is developing an imple- 

 mentation plan. At the same time, PICES is working 

 closely with U.S. GLOBEC, which is sponsoring two 

 planning workshops, one held in Seattle in April 1995 

 and a second scheduled for January 1996, to develop 

 a science plan. A plan for the Bering Sea is included. 



A new working group on consumption by marine 

 birds and mammals was established at the fourth 

 annual PICES meeting in Quingdao in October 1995. 

 The members have not yet been appointed. 



North Pacific Universities 



Marine Mammal Research Consortium 



The North Pacific Marine 

 Science Organization (PICES) 



As noted in previous Commission reports, Canada, 

 Japan, the People's Republic of China, the former 

 Soviet Union, and the United States concluded the 

 Convention for the North Pacific Marine Science 

 Organization (PICES) in December 1990. The 

 purpose of the Convention is to provide scientific 

 understanding of the North Pacific Ocean and its 



Because of their continuing decline, Steller sea 

 lions were listed as threatened under the Endangered 

 Species Act in 1990. Recognizing that the uncertainty 

 concerning the cause of the decline could lead to 

 restricting fisheries in areas where the decline had 

 occurred, representatives of several North Pacific 

 fisheries initiated efforts in 1992 to develop and seek 

 funding for an independent, non-governmental re- 

 search program to investigate the relationship between 

 fisheries and marine mammals in the North Pacific 



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