The Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and the Arctic Council — Marine 

 mammals are important components of the Arctic marine ecosystem. They include polar bears; 

 walruses; ringed, bearded, harp, hooded, ribbon, and spotted seals; narwhals; and bowhead, 

 minke, fm, gray, and beluga whales. A number of these species are important to the cultures 

 and subsistence economies of indigenous people in coastal Alaska and other Arctic areas. 



The ranges of most marine species and many terrestrial species in the Arctic include 

 areas under the jurisdiction of more than one country. Consequently, effective conservation of 

 these species and their essential habitats requires cooperative efforts by the eight Arctic nations. 

 Recognizing this need, the United States and the other Arctic countries adopted and in 1991 

 began implementing the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy. In September 1996 the eight 

 Arctic countries established the Arctic Council as a high-level forum to oversee and coordinate 

 efforts to protect the Arctic environment and to promote sustainable development and utilization 

 of Arctic resources. This section provides background and describes the establishment of the 

 Arctic Council, including development of rules of procedure for the Council and its subsidiary 

 bodies, and terms of reference for the sustainable development program. It also describes the 

 ongoing efforts of the four working groups established to give effect to the Arctic Environmental 

 Protection Strategy. It points out recommendations by the Commission and steps being taken 

 by the Department of State to identify and promote priority activities during the next two years 

 while the United States is providing the secretarial support for the Council. 



Marine Mammal Strandings and Die-Offs (Chapter V) 



In the past 20 years the number of unusual marine mammal die-offs appears to have 

 increased in the United States and elsewhere. Although some of these events have been linked 

 to naturally occurring biotoxins and diseases, human causes may be contributing factors, as well. 

 For example, pollution may spawn blooms of toxic algae, and contaminants introduced into 

 marine food chains may affect the life spans and reproductive success of marine mammals. In 

 1998 the largest reported die-off involved the death of more than 1,600 New Zealand, or 

 Hooker's, sea lion pups in the Auckland Islands concurrent with a bloom of toxic algae. In the 

 United States more than 70 California sea lions died in central California in May coincident with 

 a toxic algal bloom; large numbers of California sea lions, northern fur seals, and other 

 pinnipeds continued to die along the west coast coincident with the unusually strong El Nino 

 conditions that began in 1997; and 12 separate strandings of beaked whales, a pelagic species 

 that rarely strands, occurred in the southeastern United States between late August and early 

 October. 



To promote better responses to unusual marine mammal mortality events, a new section 

 on marine mammal health and stranding response was added to the Marine Mammal Protection 

 Act in 1992. With regard to these provisions, a die-off contingency plan for Florida manatees, 

 on which the Commission commented extensively in 1997, was completed in 1998 by the Florida 

 Department of Environmental Protection and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Also, further steps 

 were taken by the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop criteria for determining when 

 it is safe to release rehabilitated stranded marine mammals back into the wild; to develop a 



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