Wildlife Service, the State of Hawaii, and the academic 
community, to review the draft five-year research plan 
prepared at an earlier Commission-sponsored meeting and 
provide suggestions on ways in which the maximum return on 
the appropriated money could be realized. The experts' 
report was used to develop a preliminary plan for investing 
the $100,000, and, on 27 December 1979, letters enclosing 
the plan were sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service 
and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for review and comment. 
The Commission's plan identified ten tasks of primary 
importance for: determining the cause or causes of the monk 
seal decline; improving assessments of the status of monk 
seal populations and habitats; and facilitating the development, 
support, and implementation of an effective monk seal recovery 
plan. The letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service 
noted that the Commission assumed that the Service would 
continue certain studies and might be able to provide personnel 
and/or ship support to assist in the conduct of certain 
studies identified in the plan. The Commission also asked 
if the Service would undertake certain of the identified 
tasks with Commission support, and that, if it chose to do 
so, it submit a research proposal or proposals to the Commission 
for consideration. The Commission also recommended in its 
letter that the Service appoint and convene the Monk Seal 
Recovery Team no later than the first week in February 1980, 
and further asked that the information requested in the 
letter be provided in time to be considered at the meeting 
of the Commission and its Committee of Scientific Advisors 
on 21-22 February. The Commission's 27 December letter to 
the Fish and Wildlife Service asked that the Service: 
review the draft plan; indicate how it might be improved 
and/or coordinated with research programs being carried out 
in the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge; provide a 
list and description of research projects to be carried out 
at the Refuge during the coming year, including an assessment 
of the possible effects of those studies on monk seals; and 
advise the Commission as to its short- and long-range plans 
for the abandoned Coast Guard station on Tern Island, French 
Frigate Shoals. 
On 21-22 February 1980, the Commission and its Committee 
of Scientific Advisors met with representatives of the 
National Marine Fisheries Service who advised the Commission 
that: the Service generally concurred with the tasks, 
priorities, and funding levels set forth in the Commission's 
draft research and studies plan for monk seals; the Honolulu 
Laboratory of the Southwest Fisheries Center was willing to 
= 25) = 
