MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1995 



In response to these concerns, in 1994 the Alaska 

 Division of Government Coordination issued a consis- 

 tency determination under the State's Coastal Zone 

 Management Program, finding that seafood processors 

 on the Pribilof Islands should be exempted from the 

 statewide general permit and instead be covered under 

 an interim two-year general permit. Pending issuance 

 of the interim permit, pre- 1994 discharge restrictions 

 would apply, and an interagency task force of local, 

 state, federal, and industry officials would evaluate 

 key issues and recommend conditions for the two-year 

 interim permit period. During that two-year permit 

 period, monitoring studies would be undertaken to 

 resolve uncertainties about potential wildlife impacts. 

 Based on their results, general permit conditions 

 specific to the Pribilof Islands would be developed for 

 implementation when the interim permit expired. 



During 1995 several steps were taken to address 

 problems that had arisen with the various waste 

 outfalls. Two of the three seafood processing plants 

 on St. Paul Island replaced waste outfalls made of 

 plastic pipe with steel pipelines, which were properly 

 secured to prevent rupturing. Leaks in the remaining 

 plastic pipe were also repaired, and municipal sewage 

 from the city of St. Paul was then discharged through 

 that pipeline, pending construction of a new municipal 

 outfall to be completed in 1996. Heavy seas and sea 

 ice conditions common in the Pribilof Islands in 

 winter and early spring, however, remain a threat to 

 the integrity of this outfall. 



Also in 1995 the Environmental Protection Agency 

 developed a proposed two-year general permit for all 

 seafood processors on or within three miles of the 

 Pribilof Islands. Its provisions would ban discharges 

 of solids larger than one-half inch in any dimension 

 and prohibit all discharges within one-half nautical 

 mile of any fur seal rookery or protected seabird 

 nesting area. Other provisions would prohibit dis- 

 charges within three nautical miles of Walrus Island 

 (a major Steller sea lion rookery) and require monitor- 

 ing studies to document evidence of discharged wastes 

 on the sea floor, the sea surface, and adjacent shore- 

 lines. Public comments on the proposed permit were 

 received by the agency late in 1995 and a final 

 decision on the proposed two-year interim permit is 

 expected early in 1996. 



The development of plans to carry out an adequate 

 research program to help identify needed actions after 

 the two-year interim period remain uncertain although 

 some steps have been taken. To help assess the likely 

 movement of discharged seafood processing wastes, 

 the Environmental Protection Agency provided funds 

 to study ocean currents around the Pribilof Islands 

 and, as noted below, the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service undertook monitoring studies to detect possi- 

 ble impacts from outfall discharges at fur seal rooker- 

 ies on the Pribilof Islands. The interagency task force 

 responsible for identifying and evaluating problem 

 areas, however, has not met to develop final recom- 

 mendations on needed research and monitoring 

 studies, and it was not clear what steps would be 

 taken to address this need. As a related matter, a 

 separate task force to consider vessel traffic problems 

 and oil spills was to be convened by the Coast Guard, 

 but as of the end of 1995, it too had not yet met. 



Northern Fur Seal Research Activities in 1995 



In response to recommendations by the Marine 

 Mammal Commission and a requirement added to the 

 Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1988, the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service developed and, in 1993, 

 adopted a conservation plan for northern fur seals. 

 The plan's primary purpose is to identify and guide 

 research and management actions needed to restore 

 the depleted fur seal population on the Pribilof Is- 

 lands. As described elsewhere in this section, fur seal 

 management activities in 1995 focused on the subsis- 

 tence harvest, waste discharges from seafood process- 

 ing plants and associated vessel traffic, and incidental 

 mortality due to commercial fishing operations. 



To provide an informed basis for making manage- 

 ment decisions, the fur seal conservation plan includes 

 research provisions for monitoring the status and 

 trends of fur seal populations, and clarifying the 

 causes of the recent population decline and lack of 

 recovery of the Pribilof Islands population. However, 

 after the Interim Fur Seal Convention lapsed in 1984, 

 funding for fur seal research declined significantly. In 

 recent years, funding has been sufficient to carry out 

 little more than basic population monitoring work, 

 which itself was cut back in 1985 from an annual 

 effort to a biennial program. This work has been 

 supplemented by cooperative studies with Native 



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