MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1995 



term monitoring programs that would be necessary to 

 verify that Antarctic flora and fauna are not affected 

 adversely by research and other activities in Antarctica 

 and that the Council of Managers of National Antarc- 

 tic Programs (COMNAP), in consultation with SCAR, 

 establish monitoring programs to determine the 

 environmental "footprint" of different types and sizes 

 of stations in different Antarctic environments. 



At the XVIIIth Antarctic Treaty Consultative 

 Meeting held in Kyoto, Japan, on 1 1-22 April 1994, 

 SCAR and COMNAP jointly reported on steps that 

 they had taken to respond to the requests. They 

 proposed convening a series of technical workshops to 

 consider and provide advice on specific methods and 

 equipment for monitoring selected indicator variables. 



This proposal was endorsed by the XVIIIth Consul- 

 tative Meeting. Because of the complexity of the 

 subject, it was agreed to hold two workshops. The 

 first, held in Oslo, Norway, on 17-20 October 1995, 

 was designed to assess the relative significance of 

 possible impacts from different activities and identify 

 possible monitoring options. The second workshop, 

 to be held at Texas A&M University on 26-29 March 

 1996, is to provide advice on the design and imple- 

 mentation of an environmental monitoring program in 

 Antarctica, taking into account financial and logistical 

 constraints and the limitations of present technologies. 

 A member of the Commission staff helped develop the 

 terms of reference for both workshops and will 

 participate in the March 1996 workshop. 



Waste Disposal and Management — When it 

 becomes effective, Annex III to the Protocol on 

 Environmental Protection will obligate Antarctic 

 Treaty Consultative Parties to reduce, as far as 

 practicable, the amount of waste produced and dis- 

 posed of in the Antarctic Treaty area. In addition, the 

 annex will obligate parties to clean up both abandoned 

 and current waste disposal sites in Antarctica. 



Following conclusion of the protocol in 1991, the 

 National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Pro- 

 grams, the organization responsible for the U.S. 

 Antarctic program, initiated steps to comply with 

 these and other provisions of the protocol. Many of 

 the steps taken to minimize introduction and produc- 

 tion of waste at U.S. stations and field camps might 



be used by other treaty parties. It also might be 

 useful to reduce waste production and disposal prob- 

 lems in remote areas of the Arctic as well as the 

 Antarctic. Therefore, the Marine Mammal Commis- 

 sion will recommend early in 1996 that the National 

 Science Foundation prepare a report describing the 

 steps taken to comply with Annex III and make that 

 report available both to the Antarctic Treaty Consulta- 

 tive Parties and to the eight countries involved in 

 developing and implementing the Arctic Environmen- 

 tal Protection Strategy, described in Chapter VI. 



XlXth Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting 



Article 9 of the Antarctic Treaty specifies that 

 representatives of the treaty parties shall meet periodi- 

 cally to exchange information, consult with each 

 other, and recommend to their governments measures 

 to further the principles and objectives of the treaty. 

 Since the treaty entered into force in 1961, there have 

 been 19 regular consultative meetings and 11 special 

 consultative meetings. Regular consultative meetings 

 provide a mechanism for determining measures 

 needed to better implement the treaty and other 

 components of the treaty system. Special consultative 

 meetings provide a mechanism for dealing with 

 resource and other issues not covered by the treaty. 

 For example, the Convention on the Conservation of 

 Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the Convention 

 on Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activi • 

 ties, and the previously mentioned Protocol on Envi- 

 ronmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty were 

 negotiated at special consultative meetings. 



The XlXth Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting 

 was held in Seoul, Korea, on 8-19 May 1995. 

 Matters considered at this meeting included entry into 

 force and implementation of the Protocol on Environ- 

 mental Protection, liability for damage to the Antarc- 

 tic environment; tourism and other non-governmental 

 activities in the Treaty area, inspections carried out 

 under Article 7 of the Antarctic Treaty, establishment 

 of additional protected areas, and establishment of a 

 permanent secretariat to facilitate information ex- 

 change and organization of consultative meetings. 



Entry into Force and Implementation of the 

 Protocol on Environmental Protection — Article 1 1 

 of the protocol provides for the establishment of a 



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