scopes of work that describe precisely what the agency is to do 

 or to have done and the requirements for reporting on progress to 

 the Commission. In many instances, this approach has made it 

 possible for agencies to start needed research sooner than might 

 otherwise have been possible and then to subsequently support the 

 projects on their own for as long as necessary. The Commission 

 believes that it is valuable to maintain agency involvement to 

 the greatest extent possible and that such transfers provide a 

 useful means of doing so. 



Projects undertaken by the Marine Mammal Commission in 1989 

 are summarized below. In those cases in which the Commission has 

 jointly supported the work with other agencies, it is so noted in 

 the project summary. Final reports from Commission-sponsored 

 studies completed in 1989 and earlier are available from the 

 National Technical Information Service; they are listed in 

 Appendix B of this Report. Papers resulting from Commission- 

 sponsored activities and published elsewhere are listed in 

 Appendix C. 



Marine Mammal Strandings 



Marine mammals that strand live or die and wash up on 

 beaches provide valuable and sometimes unique sources of 

 information concerning the distribution, relative abundance, 

 morphology, diseases, and natural history of marine mammals and, 

 in some cases, may be indicators of the status of marine mammal 

 populations and the ecosystems of which they are a part. Studies 

 of stranded animals may also contribute to assessing and 

 monitoring the fate and effects of environmental contaminants 

 (e.g., anthropogenic hydrocarbons, fertilizers, herbicides, 

 pesticides from agricultural runoffs, industrial effluent, lost 

 and discarded fishing gear, etc.), and determining and monitoring 

 the species and numbers of marine mammals being caught and killed 

 incidentally during commercial fishing operations. 



As described in Chapter IX, the Minerals Management Service, 

 in consultation with the Commission and the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, held a workshop in New Orleans on 1-3 August 

 1989 to identify information needed to assess and mitigate the 

 effects of human activities on marine mammals and sea turtles in 

 the Gulf of Mexico. The workshop participants noted the value of 

 information that can be derived from stranded animals and 

 recommended, among other things, that steps be taken to evaluate 

 and improve the operation of the Gulf of Mexico Marine Mammal 

 Stranding Network. In response to these recommendations, the 

 Marine Mammal Commission, in consultation with and with funding 

 provided, in part, by the Minerals Management Service and the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, contracted for the three 

 projects described below. 



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