Advisors, wrote to the Service noting that the proposed projects 

 and funding levels for Fiscal Year 1990 appeared appropriate and 

 recommending that the Plan be implemented. 



Under the Fiscal Year 1990 Program Plan, eight projects 

 begun in previous years will continue: (1) education and public 

 awareness efforts; (2) production of marine debris education 

 program supplies; (3) support for the national beach clean-up 

 database; (4) monitoring and destroying accumulations of marine 

 debris hazardous to Hawaiian monk seals in the Hawaiian Islands 

 National Wildlife Refuge; (5) surveys of entangling debris on 

 Alaska beaches; (6) studies of juvenile male fur seal entangle- 

 ment in marine debris; (7) the National Seashore Marine Debris 

 Survey Program; and (8) monitoring entanglement of pinnipeds in 

 the California Channel Islands National Park and National Marine 

 Sanctuary. 



In addition, the following new tasks will be supported with 

 Fiscal Year 1990 funds: (1) designing and implementing model 

 port/marina projects in Puerto Rico and convening a symposium to 

 assess project results and marine debris issues in the Gulf of 

 Mexico and Caribbean Sea region; (2) evaluating economic costs 

 and impacts of marine debris; (3) convening a workshop to assess 

 techniques to reduce loss rates and impacts from lost fishing 

 gear; (4) developing a handbook on methodologies to gather 

 information on the types, amounts, and distribution of marine 

 debris; (5) undertaking an information outreach project to 

 disseminate information on marine debris to environmental/solid 

 waste agencies and environmental groups in coastal states; 

 (6) developing advice on port reception facilities and shipboard 

 incineration that could be used to supplement the guidelines 

 established by the International Maritime Organization on 

 implementing Annex V of the International Convention for the 

 Prevention of Pollution from Ships; (7) evaluating physical and 

 physiological effects of plastics ingested by loggerhead sea 

 turtles; (8) assessing the likelihood of loggerhead turtles 

 interacting with marine debris in the North Atlantic Ocean; and 

 (9) studying the fate and impact of lost gillnets off the 

 northeast United States. 



The Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act of 1987 



The U.S. ratified Annex V of the International Convention 

 for the Prevention of Pollution by Ships, commonly referred to as 

 MARPOL, on 31 December 1987. The Annex establishes international 

 standards for regulating the disposal of garbage from ships, a 

 major source of marine debris in the world's oceans. The 

 provisions of Annex V prohibit the disposal of plastics by ships 

 at sea, set discharge limitations for other types of ship- 

 generated garbage, and require that port reception facilities be 

 provided to receive garbage returned to shore. As discussed in 



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