action in that it failed to adequately describe and 

 provide rationales for the tasks included in the outline; 

 it did not set forth a schedule for activities; it did 

 not indicate how much money would be needed to complete 

 each task; and it did not indicate which agencies or 

 organizations should be responsible for conducting or 

 supporting the various tasks. Furthermore, the plan 

 provided no indication of when and how an operational work 

 plan would be developed. 



The Commission recommended to the Service that it ask 

 the Recovery Team to set priorities and to provide estimates 

 of the time, personnel, logistic support, and funding which 

 would be required to complete each of the tasks identified 

 in the draft outline. The Commission also asked to review 

 and comment on the completed recovery plan before it was 

 submitted for approval and implementation. 



On 27 June through 1 July 1982, the Commission's 

 Scientific Program Director met in Hawaii with representatives 

 of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, the Coast Guard, the State of Hawaii, and 

 others to discuss issues concerning the conservation and 

 protection of the Hawaiian monk seal and other marine 

 mammals in Hawaiian waters. It was apparent from those 

 discussions that the Congressional directive to the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service to invest $400,000 in monk seal 

 research and management activities in FY 1982 had had 

 positive effects. Not only had several critically needed 

 research and management programs been either started or 

 expanded, but there also was heightened awareness of and 

 desire to address monk seal problems within the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 the Coast Guard, involved State agencies, and the academic 

 community. ' 



At the request of the Commission, the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service held a meeting on 11 August 1982 to 

 review actions already taken or being planned to protect 

 and encourage recovery of the Hawaiian monk seal. 

 Information presented during the review indicated, among 

 other things, that: the Service's captive pup rearing 

 program on Kure Atoll is improving pup survival and 

 should be continued; the pilot radio-tagging and 

 dive-profile studies being conducted at Lisianski Island 

 show promising results and should be expanded to include 

 females and juvenile animals as well as adult male monk 

 seals; mortality and injury caused by entanglement in 

 lost or discarded fishing gear and aberrant behavior 



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