supported by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commis- 
sion, the Minerals Management Service, the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, the North Slope Borough, 
the oil and gas industry, and the State of Alaska. By 
letter of 11 January 1982, the Marine Mammal 
Commission recommended that the National Marine 
Fisheries Service’s Alaska Regional Director assume 
responsibility for convening regular coordination 
meetings of all researchers and sponsors before the 
start of each spring bowhead whale research season. 
In subsequent years, formal coordination meetings 
were not always held, and it was not clear that every- 
thing necessary was being done to ensure that bow- 
head whale studies continued to be well-designed and 
properly coordinated. In its 20 March 1989 com- 
ments on a permit application related to a Minerals 
Management Service contract study, the Commission 
recommended that the National Marine Fisheries 
Service issue the permit with the condition that the 
funding agency (the Minerals Management Service) 
constitute a quality review board to evaluate the 
proposed study design and recommend needed modifi- 
cations. A Scientific Review Board was subsequently 
constituted and met twice each year to review the 
results of the preceding season’s research and plans 
for the forthcoming season. The board did not meet 
in 1992 because poor weather conditions prevented 
ice-based field research. 
In January 1992 the National Marine Fisheries 
Service convened a meeting in Barrow, Alaska, to 
coordinate research projects and identify duplicative 
efforts, to inform local residents of research plans, 
and to coordinate research activities with the Native 
subsistence hunt. 
The National Marine Fisheries Service has lead 
responsibility in the United States for identifying, 
encouraging, and coordinating research necessary to 
ensure that human activities do not adversely affect 
bowhead whales or their habitat. Development of a 
recovery plan specifying research and management 
requirements would help the Service meet its respon- 
sibilities. Therefore, in its 5 December 1991 letter to 
the U.S. IWC Commissioner (see Chapter V), the 
Marine Mammal Commission recommended that the 
National Marine Fisheries Service develop a recovery 
plan for the western Arctic bowhead whale popula- 
57 
Chapter III — Species of Special Concern 
tion. As of the end of 1992, the Commission was 
aware of no action by the Service to develop the 
recommended recovery plan. 
Small-Take Exemption 
On 18 July 1990 the National Marine Fisheries 
Service published in the Federal Register a final rule 
authorizing the incidental, non-lethal take of six 
species of marine mammals, including bowhead 
whales, incidental to oil and gas exploration activities 
in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas from 1990 to 1995. 
The Commission’s comments on this rule and subse- 
quent requests by industry groups for letters of 
authorization to take bowhead whales are described in 
Chapter IX and in the previous annual report. 
On a related issue, on 3 December 1992 the 
Secretary of the IWC sent member nations a commu- 
nique from the Russian Federation indicating that the 
Russian Federal Fisheries Committee had granted a 
permit to Russian natives to take three bowhead 
whales in the Chukotskiy Peninsula region in Novem- 
ber-December 1992. The communique indicated that 
this had been done because it had not been possible to 
take gray whales to meet the needs of aboriginal 
people in the region. Although requested, no addi- 
tional information was available at the end of 1992. 
In 1993 the Marine Mammal Commission will 
continue to monitor matters related to bowhead whales 
and advise the National Marine Fisheries Service, the 
Minerals Management Service, and other agencies on 
further actions to protect and encourage the recovery 
of the western Arctic bowhead whale population. 
Humpback Whale 
(Megaptera novaeangliae) 
Humpback whales occur throughout the world in 
both coastal and open ocean areas. They typically 
migrate between tropical and sub-tropical latitudes and 
temperate to polar latitudes. The former areas are 
occupied during winter months when the whales 
engage in mating and the females bear their young. 
Little if any feeding occurs on the wintering grounds. 
Polar areas are occupied in the spring, summer, and 
