Chapter VIII 



RESEARCH AND STUDIES PROGRAM 



The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires that 

 the Marine Mammal Commission maintain a continu- 

 ing review of research programs conducted or pro- 

 posed under authority of the Act. It also requires the 

 Commission to undertake or facilitate other studies it 

 deems necessary or desirable to conserve marine 

 mammals and to take every step feasible to prevent 

 wasteful duplication of research. 



To accomplish these tasks, the Commission 

 conducts an annual survey of federally funded re- 

 search on marine mammals and recommends steps to 

 prevent unnecessary duplication and improve the 

 quality of research conducted or supported by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, the Minerals Management Service, 

 and other federal agencies. The Commission also 

 convenes meetings and workshops to review, plan, 

 and coordinate marine mammal research and contracts 

 for studies to help identify, define, and develop 

 solutions to domestic and international problems 

 affecting marine mammals and their habitats so as to 

 facilitate and complement activities of other agencies. 



Survey of Federally Funded 

 Marine Mammal Research 



and offices. They were the Department of Agricul- 

 ture; the Department of the Air Force; the Department 

 of the Army; the Department of Commerce's Coastal 

 Ocean Office, National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 National Sea Grant College Program, Office of Ocean 

 Resources Conservation and Assessment, and Sanctu- 

 aries and Reserves Division; the Department of 

 Energy; the Department of the Interior's Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, Minerals Management Service, the 

 Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological 

 Survey, and the National Park Service; the Depart- 

 ment of the Navy; the Department of State; the 

 Department of Transportation; the Environmental 

 Protection Agency; the National Aeronautics and 

 Space Administration; the National Institutes of 

 Health; and the National Science Foundation. The 

 Commission also requested information from the 

 Smithsonian Institution, a trust instrumentality of the 

 United States. 



The information obtained will be summarized in 

 the Commission-sponsored report "Survey of Feder- 

 ally Funded Marine Mammal Research and Studies 

 FY74 - FY98," which will be available from the 

 National Technical Information Service in 1999 (see 

 Waring 1981-1998, Appendix B, for reports of previ- 

 ous surveys). 



Research on marine mammals and their habitats is 

 conducted or supported by a number of federal 

 departments and agencies. To determine the nature of 

 this research, and to assess ways in which it can best 

 be coordinated to facilitate marine mammal conserva- 

 tion, each year the Commission requests information 

 on the marine mammal and related research being 

 conducted, supported, and planned by these depart- 

 ments and agencies. 



For the 1998 survey, the Commission requested 

 information from 20 federal agencies, departments. 



Marine Mammal Workshops and 

 Planning Meetings 



In 1998 the Marine Mammal Commission provided 

 comments and recommendations to other federal 

 agencies on a broad range of issues affecting the 

 conservation and protection of marine mammals and 

 their habitats. The issues included protection and 

 recovery of endangered, threatened, and depleted 

 species; interactions between marine mammals and 

 fisheries; possible direct and indirect effects of coastal 



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