the spill on sea otters and other marine mammals, and 



(b) describe the time, money, and special logistic support 



needed to do the necessary studies. 



In its letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the 

 Commission noted that most of the preceding recommendations had 

 been discussed with the Alaska Regional Director the previous 

 week. The Commission emphasized its belief that all haste should 

 be made to bring members of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 

 California staff and others familiar with the care and handling 

 of sea otters to Alaska to: assist at the existing cleaning and 

 rehabilitation station; establish one or more additional 

 stations; undertake tagging (already authorized under a Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act permit) of sea otters as a part of an 

 experimental effort to determine and better understand the impact 

 of the oil spill; and assist with other activities described 

 above. Subsequently, representatives of the Commission and its 

 Committee of Scientific Advisors visited Prince William Sound to 

 determine what was being done and what more should be done to 

 assess and minimize the effects of the spill on marine mammals. 



As provided by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, 

 Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended, and the 

 Clean Water Act, the State of Alaska and three Federal agencies 

 — the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, and 

 the Department of the Interior — are acting together as trustees 

 to protect and assess injuries to natural resources resulting 

 from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The Environmental Protection 

 Agency has assisted the trustees in the damage assessment and 

 coordinating the restoration effort with the State of Alaska. To 

 manage the assessment, the trustees established a Trustee 

 Council, headquartered in Alaska. 



One of the responsibilities of the Council is to develop a 

 damage assessment plan. To initiate development of the plan, 

 meetings of State and Federal agency scientists and other experts 

 were held in Anchorage in April 1989 to identify and describe 

 critical information needs. A Commission representative partici- 

 pated in meetings to define information needs relative to marine 

 mammals. 



Also, on 21-26 April 1989, the Commission's Scientific 

 Program Director conducted a site visit to consult with 

 representatives of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of 

 Alaska, and others involved in the clean-up and damage assessment 

 effort. Following this visit, the Commission, by letter of 

 12 May 1989, suggested to the Fish and Wildlife Service that it 

 contract with an expert to serve as the Sea Otter Impact 

 Assessment Coordinator. The Commission provided the Service 

 draft terms of reference for the suggested contract. The Service 

 subsequently contracted with a recognized expert on sea otters to 

 carry out this task. In this context, the Service is planning to 



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