By letter of 13 September 1989, the Commission, in consul- 

 tation with its Committee of Scientific Advisors, provided 

 comments to the Service on the proposed amendments. In its 

 letter, the Commission concurred that the possible cause-effect 

 relationship between fishery development in the area and the 

 decline in walrus numbers warranted establishing an experimental 

 closed fishing area. The Commission noted, however, that the 

 document did not identify the criteria that would be used to 

 determine, after four years, whether the closure had the desired 

 effect. Also, it did not fully describe the research and 

 monitoring programs that would be needed to evaluate the 

 closure's effectiveness. Therefore, the Commission recommended 

 that the Service identify the criteria and the research and 

 monitoring studies that would be needed to assess the 

 effectiveness of the proposed and alternative actions. 



In this regard, the Commission noted that the proposed 

 closure around the individual islands could concentrate fishing 

 along the perimeter of the islands and create a curtain of noise 

 and disturbance that might discourage walrus from approaching the 

 islands. This would not be the case under the alternative of 

 closing the entire embayment between Cape Pierce and Cape 

 Constant ine. Moreover, the document noted that recent fishing 

 surveys indicated that the embayment is a significant yellowfin 

 sole spawning ground. Therefore, the Commission recommended that 

 the document be expanded to assess the potential benefits to the 

 fishery from preventing harvests of spawning fish in the 

 embayment between the two capes. It also expressed its view that 

 the alternative seasonal closure of waters between Cape Pierce 

 and Cape Constantine was preferable to the proposed action. 



In its letter, the Commission expressed strong support for 

 the proposed recordkeeping and reporting system and the framework 

 observer program. The Commission noted, however, that the 

 document did not reflect relevant requirements stemming from the 

 1988 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The 

 Commission therefore recommended that the Service review the 

 details of the proposed and alternative data reporting and 

 observer programs to ensure that they are fully consistent with 

 the program requirements developed to implement the 1988 Marine 

 Mammal Protection Act amendments. 



On 6 December 1989, the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 published a Federal Register notice announcing it was adopting a 

 rule giving force to the Council's recommended action. The rule 

 established a two-year seasonal groundfish fishing closure in 

 Federally controlled waters between 3 and 12 miles around Round 

 Island and certain other islands in the Walrus Islands, and 

 around Cape Pierce. The closure is effective between 1 April and 

 30 September in both 1990 and 1991. 



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