MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1998 



June 1998. The 23rd Consultative Meeting will be 

 held in Lima, Peru, from 24 May to 4 June 1999. A 

 member of the Marine Mammal Commission's staff 

 was a member of the U.S. delegation to the 1997 

 Consultative Meeting, including the meeting of the 

 Committee for Environmental Protection and the 

 Workshop on Specially Protected Areas described 

 above. If requested by the Department of State, the 

 Commission will continue to serve on U.S. delega- 

 tions to the 1999 Treaty meeting and the meeting of 

 the Committee for Environmental Protection. 



A broad range of issues was considered at the 1998 

 Consultative Meeting, including the consequences of 

 entry into force of the Environmental Protocol; the 

 advice on related matters provided by the Committee 

 for Environmental Protection; continuing efforts to 

 develop an annex or annexes to the Environmental 

 Protocol establishing procedures for determining 

 damage and liability for damage to the Antarctic 

 environment; ongoing efforts to assess and determine 

 how best to minimize the possible adverse effects of 

 tourism and other non-governmental activities on the 

 Antarctic enviroimient and other activities in Antarcti- 

 ca; and operation of the Antarctic Treaty System. 



Consequences of Entry into Force of the Envi- 

 ronmental Protocol — As noted earlier, the Protocol 

 on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty 

 entered into force on 14 January 1998. As of that 

 date, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties were 

 obligated to implement the provisions of the Protocol, 

 including those in the first four aiuiexes (i.e., the 

 annexes on environmental impact assessment, conser- 

 vation of Antarctic fauna and flora, waste disposal and 

 management, and prevention of marine pollution). 



As also noted earlier, the Committee for Environ- 

 mental Protection considered a variety of matters 

 related to environmental impact assessment during its 

 first meeting. The Committee established an open- 

 ended correspondence group, chaired by Argentina, to 

 develop possible guidelines for environmental impact 

 assessment to be considered at the meeting in 1999. 

 Further, the Committee included environmental 

 impact assessment on its agenda for priority consider- 

 ation during its 1999 meeting in Lima, Peru. The 

 Consultative Meeting endorsed these actions. 



During the discussion of issues related to Antarctic 

 fauna and flora, Australia advised the Committee and 

 the Consultative Meeting that it would host a work- 

 shop in Hobart, Tasmania, on 25-28 August 1998 to 

 consider threats posed by the possible introduction of 

 exotic diseases to Antarctic fauna and flora, and 

 means whereby such threats might be minimized. As 

 noted in Chapter VIII, a member of the Commission's 

 Committee of Scientific Advisors attended this work- 

 shop and presented a paper summarizing what is 

 known about unusual marine mammal mortality events 

 worldwide. The report from the workshop is expect- 

 ed to be provided for consideration at the 1999 

 meetings of the Committee and Antarctic Treaty 

 Consultative Parties. 



With regard to waste disposal and management 

 (Annex III), the United States tabled a paper describ- 

 ing the pollution prevention measures and investment 

 in pollution abatement carried out by the National 

 Science Foundation at McMurdo Station since 1987. 

 Among other things, the paper noted that the National 

 Science Foundation has harmed open burning, cleaned 

 up and closed the waste dump, and developed and 

 implemented programs to prevent and contain fuel 

 spills at McMurdo Station. The paper illustrates 

 actions other Treaty Parties can take to clean up and 

 reduce the production of environmental contaminants 

 at their stations in Antarctica. 



Discussion regarding prevention of marine pollu- 

 tion (Annex IV) focused on contingency planning and 

 emergency response. A resolution was adopted 

 recommending that the Consultative Parties adopt 

 guidelines developed by the Council of Managers of 

 National Antarctic Programs (COMNAP) and its 

 Standing Committee on Antarctic Logistics and 

 Operations (SCALOP) regarding fuel oil handling at 

 stations and bases in Antarctica; prevention and 

 containment of fuel oil spills at stations and bases; oil 

 spill contingency planning; and reporting of oil spill 

 incidents in Antarctica. The Council and Standing 

 Committee were requested to undertake an assessment 

 of the risks of environmental emergencies arising 

 from activities in Antarctica and to identify measures 

 that should be taken to prevent and respond to inci- 

 dents other than oil spills that could impact the 

 Antarctic environment. Parties that had not already 



140 



