recommendation. In 1988, Congress, supportive of the 

 Commission's view, amended the Marine Mammal Protection Act to 

 direct the Service to complete a fur seal conservation plan by 31 

 December 1989. At year's end, the Service was working on a draft 

 plan for review in 1990. 



In 1988, the Commission recommended that the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service designate Steller sea lions as depleted and 

 that it develop and implement a conservation plan to help guide 

 efforts to restore the species. Neither was done. Recognizing 

 the importance of the conservation plan, Congress, in its 1988 

 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, directed the 

 Service to prepare a conservation plan for Steller sea lions by 

 31 December 1990. Further impetus for a conservation plan was 

 provided by the 1989 range-wide survey of Steller sea lions 

 conducted by the Service, various state agencies, and foreign 

 scientists. This survey, which indicated that the decline had 

 accelerated and spread, prompted the Environmental Defense Fund 

 to petition the Service for emergency listing of this species as 

 endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The Commission 

 recommended that the Service act immediately on the petition and 

 that it complete the conservation plan for sea lions by March 

 1990. These and related points are discussed in Chapter III. 



In addition to recommending that the Service prepare 

 conservation plans for North Pacific fur seals and Steller sea 

 lions, the Commission has recommended since 1984 that it also 

 prepare recovery plans pursuant to the Endangered Species Act for 

 right whale, humpback whale, and other endangered whale 

 populations in U.S. waters. As discussed in Chapter III, the 

 Service agreed and, in 1987, appointed recovery teams for both 

 right whales and humpback whales to help draft the plans. The 

 draft plan for humpback whales was circulated for public review 

 in October 1989, and a draft right whale recovery plan is 

 expected early in 1990. 



The final report of the clinical investigation of the 1987- 

 1988 die-off of bottlenose dolphins along the east coast of the 

 United States was submitted in 1989. The report indicates that 

 most of the animals examined died from bacterial and viral 

 infections that are not normally fatal and that animals may have 

 been made vulnerable to secondary infections by eating fish 

 containing biotoxins produced by Pt ycodiscus brevis , the marine 

 dinoflagellate that causes Florida's red tides. The report also 

 indicates that high levels of organochlorines were found in some, 

 but not all, animals examined, suggesting that environmental 

 pollution may be an emerging problem. These and other matters, 

 including the status of Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico dolphin 

 populations and the Commission's continuing efforts to identify 

 and recommend actions needed to determine the cause of the die- 

 off, are discussed in Chapter III. 



in 



