Chapter V 
INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF MARINE MAMMAL 
PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION 
Section 108 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act 
directs the Departments of Commerce, the Interior, 
and State, in consultation with the Marine Mammal 
Commission, to take such actions as may be appropri- 
ate or necessary to protect and conserve marine 
mammals under existing international agreements and 
to negotiate additional agreements required to achieve 
the purposes of the Act. In addition, section 202 of 
the Act directs that the Marine Mammal Commission 
recommend to the Secretary of State and other Federal 
officials appropriate policies regarding international 
arrangements for protecting and conserving marine 
mammals. 
The Commission’s activities in 1992 with respect 
to cooperation concerning marine mammal conserva- 
tion are discussed below. During 1992, the Commis- 
sion made substantial progress towards completing the 
compendium of international treaties and agreements 
bearing on the conservation of marine wildlife. In 
addition, the Commission continued to devote atten- 
tion to providing advice on U.S. positions regarding 
the International Whaling Commission, addressing the 
impacts of large-scale high seas driftnet fisheries, and 
conserving and protecting marine mammals in the 
Southern Ocean. 
Compendium of Treaties, 
International Agreements, and 
Other Relevant Documents 
In October 1977, the Congressional Research 
Service prepared a compendium for the Senate Com- 
mittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation 
entitled “Treaties and Other International Agreements 
on Fisheries, Oceanographic Resources, and Wildlife 
Involving the United States.” The 1,250-page com- 
pendium included the texts of multilateral and bilateral 
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treaties and agreements concerning Antarctica, wild- 
life conservation, fisheries, marine pollution, marine 
mammals, the law of the sea, and certain other topics. 
Its contents were limited to agreements to which the 
United States was a party as of the end of 1976. The 
compendium has never been updated. 
There is a clear need for easy access to documents 
defining United States’ obligations in support of 
international programs concerning marine mammals 
and other wildlife, ocean conservation and resource 
management, environmental protection, and related 
issues. Recognizing this, in 1992 the Marine Mam- 
mal Commission undertook to compile treaties, 
international agreements, and other relevant docu- 
ments in these and related fields in order to update 
and expand upon the 1977 compendium. 
For this purpose, in April 1992 the Commission 
convened an advisory board to help determine the 
content and format of the compendium. The advisory 
board is composed of professionals in the fields of 
international natural resource law, policy, and man- 
agement. It includes, among others, representatives 
of Federal agencies, academic institutions, law firms 
specializing in international and natural resource law, 
international legal organizations, and conservation 
organizations. The board also includes persons 
involved in production of the 1977 compendium. 
Among other things, the advisory board helped to 
define the scope of the compendium, complete a table 
of contents, and develop a format that would be most 
useful for both students and professionals in the 
relevant fields. 
Collection of documents was begun in mid-1991 
and continued through mid-1992. Although the 
compendium focuses primarily on marine-related 
agreements, it also will include a large number of 
