Permit Office immediately request that its Alaska Regional Office 

 inform individuals involved in walrus research and management of 

 appropriate steps to report the existence of possible specimens 

 that could be used to satisfy the applicant's request without 

 sacrificing an animal. By memorandum of 20 September 1988, the 

 Alaska Regional Office informed the Service's Permit Office of 

 its intention to meet requests for museum specimens of marine 

 mammals from salvaged carcasses or other appropriate sources 

 whenever opportunities permitted doing so. 



On 11 January 1989, the Commission transmitted a letter to 

 the Service on implementation of the newly enacted amendments to 

 the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Among other things, the 

 amendments set forth a principle that lethal research on marine 

 mammals not be authorized if non-lethal alternatives are 

 available. Consistent with that provision, the Commission 

 suggested in its letter that the principle be extended to public 

 display permits. Under such an extension, directed killing to 

 obtain display specimens could not be authorized unless it could 

 be shown that all non-lethal, alternative sources of specimens 

 had been exhausted. In this regard, the Commission believes that 

 the Service's draft policy statement on lethal taking for public 

 display, developed late in 1987, is consistent with the recent 

 amendments, and it recommended that the Service take steps to 

 adopt a formal policy as soon as possible. At the close of 1989, 

 the Service had yet to formalize its policy. The Commission 

 intends to raise the matter again in a letter on the Service's 

 permit program that was in preparation at year's end. 



204 



