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The Antarctic ecosystem is not untouched by human 

 activity. Some harvesting of fish and seals and exten- 

 sive harvesting of whales have already occurred. With 

 increasing commercial harvesting of krill and possibly 

 other species, there will be increasing disturbance of 

 the marine ecosystem and the nature of the system will 

 be increasingly farther from a "natural state" for 

 scientific study. 



On the other hand, commercial data have provided 

 information on stocks, abundance, reproductive and 

 mortality rates and distributions, which otherwise would 

 be unavailable. Data reported under the International 

 Whaling Convention are an example. Such information 

 cannot readily be collected on strictly scientific cruises. 

 From a scientific standpoint, a carefully controlled har- 

 vest of various species with good monitoring and data 

 reporting could provide an opportunity for a controlled 

 experiment on the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Much could 

 be learned about responses of the system to different 

 levels of harvesting. In addition, such a controlled ex- 

 periment could provide data which are needed for effec- 

 tive conservation of Antarctic living resources. More 

 information is necessary to be able to manage for long 

 term productivity of the ecosystem. 



Some increase in the impact of human activities on 

 the Antarctic marine environment appears to be inevitable. 

 Commercial interest in krill harvesting is already develop- 

 ing, and harvesting levels are likely to increase as world 

 protein demand rises. An increase in harvesting south of 

 the Antarctic Convergence is expected even though the U.S. 

 has no immediate plans to participate in it. Harvesting 

 will increase whether a conservation regime is negotiated 

 or not and regardless of whether the U.S. is a party to it. 

 The purpose of a conservation regime and the motivation 

 for U.S. participation in one is the mitigation of the 

 impacts of uncontrolled harvesting. 



B. Environmental Impacts of Proposed Federal Action 

 and Alternatives 



The approaches to negotiating a conservation regime 

 for Antarctic marine living resources, as indicated in the 

 proposed federal action and alternatives to it, comprise 

 six alternatives identified as (1) no action on a conserva- 

 tion regime, which implies no conservation measures, (2) 

 individual national action on conservation policies and 

 some coordination between these policies, (3) agreement on 



