Chapter IV 



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. It 

 also directs them 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 appropri- 

 ate policies regarding international arrangements for 

 protecting and conserving marine mammals. 



During 1998 the Commission continued efforts to 

 update the compendium of international treaties and 

 agreements bearing on the conservation of marine 

 wildlife. The Commission also continued to devote 

 attention to providing advice on the International 

 Whaling Commission, conservation of marine mam- 

 mals and marine ecosystems in the Arctic and the 

 Southern Ocean, and regulation of international trade 

 in marine mammals under the Convention on Interna- 

 tional Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna 

 and Flora. These activities are discussed below. 



The Compendium of Treaties and 

 International Agreements 



In 1994 the Marine Mammal Commission pub- 

 lished The Marine Mammal Commission Compendium 

 of Selected Treaties, International Agreements, and 

 Other Relevant Documents on Marine Resources, 

 Wildlife, and the Environment. The three-volume, 

 3,500-page Compendium, current through 1992, 

 contains the complete texts of more than 400 interna- 

 tional agreements, including more than 100 multi- 



lateral and 90 bilateral treaties, agreements, accords, 

 and memoranda of understanding. Also included are 

 numerous amendments and protocols to these docu- 

 ments, several non-binding international documents, 

 and a number of significant documents to which the 

 United States is not a party. 



The Compendium is divided into two sections 

 comprising multi-lateral and bilateral documents, 

 many of which are available for the first time. 

 Subject areas include Antarctica, environment and 

 natural resources, fisheries, marine mammals, marine 

 pollution, marine science and exploration, and others. 

 The Compendium also contains background informa- 

 tion for each document, including primary source 

 citations, the depositary nation or organization, the 

 city in which the document was concluded, the date it 

 was concluded, and, where applicable, the date it 

 entered into force. 



In 1998 the Commission published an update to the 

 Compendium, which added documents that were 

 concluded between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 

 1995, as well as a number of older documents not 

 included in the original Compendium. The revised 

 edition contains more than 25 additional multi-lateral 

 and 50 additional bilateral documents in the above 

 subject areas, many of which are available publicly 

 for the first time. The updated edition was published 

 by the U.S. Government Printing Office and is 

 available from the Superintendent of Documents. 



Also in 1998 the Commission began work on a 

 second update, which will include documents conclud- 

 ed between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 1998. 

 The volume is currently in production and is expected 

 to be published by the U.S. Government Printing 

 Office late in 1999. 



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