MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1998 



Establishment of the National Whale Conservation 

 Fund (Robbin Peach, Mattapoisett, Massachusetts) 



Some populations of great whales were driven to 

 near-extinctionthroughindiscriminateoverexploitation 

 by commercial whalers during the nineteenth and 

 early twentieth centuries. Although some stocks, such 

 as the gray whale in the eastern North Pacific Ocean, 

 have recovered substantially, many others remain 

 endangered or threatened. On 21 October 1998 

 Congress passed the Omnibus Consolidated and 

 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for FY 

 1999. The Act amended section 4 of the National 

 Fish and Wildlife Foundation Establishment Act of 

 1984 by establishing "a national whale conservation 

 endowment fund, to be used by the foundation to 

 support research, management activities, and educa- 

 tional programs that contribute to the protection, 

 conservation, and recovery of whale populations in 

 waters of the United States." The fund is to be a 

 joint project of the National Fish and Wildlife Foun- 

 dation, the Marine Mammal Commission, and the 

 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

 The contractor prepared a report providing recommen- 

 dations for the organizational groundwork and proto- 

 cols for the establishment and operation of the Nation- 

 al Whale Conservation Fund. The fund will reside 

 within the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 

 which will be responsible for fiscal administration. 

 The primary source of revenue will be through 

 sponsorships and endowments from foundations, 

 corporations, and individuals. It will provide a 

 private, non-government funding source for research 

 essential to conserve whales, as well as a source of 

 current, scientifically accurate educational material. 



Workshop on the Introduction of Disease to Ant- 

 arctic WUdlife (Joseph R. Geraci, V.M.D., Ph.D., 

 National Aquarium in Baltimore, Baltimore, 

 Maryland) 



The increasing number of people visiting the sub- 

 Antarctic region and Antarctic continent brings with 

 it an increasing potential for introducing disease to the 

 indigenous wildlife. At the 21st Antarctic Treaty 

 Consultative Meeting held in 1997, Australia present- 

 ed an information paper on the introduction of disease 

 to indigenous birds in the Antarctic. To further 



address this issue, Australia announced that it would 

 convene a workshop on this topic. The workshop 

 reviewed the status and epidemiology of disease in 

 birds and seals in Antarctica, the risks of introducing - 

 disease through such mechanisms as tourism and 

 global climate change, and the means of controlling 

 the introduction and spread of diseases, including the 

 development of preparedness and response plans. 

 Workshop participants also reviewed national Antarc- 

 tic research plans that address the issue of disease 

 introduction, and the international treaties and the 

 legal framework for controlling the introduction and 

 spread of disease in Antarctica. The workshop was 

 held on 25-28 August 1998 at the headquarters of the 

 Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart, Tasmania. 

 The contractor, representing the Marine Mammal 

 Commission, presented a paper co-authored by 

 Valerie J. Lounsbury entitled "Risks of Marine 

 Mammal Die-Offs in the Southern Ocean" in which 

 they summarized all known mass mortalities and 

 described the evolution of technology that allows for 

 more precise diagnoses and more effective investi- 

 gative approaches. The workshop report is expected 

 to be published and presented for consideration at the 

 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting to be held in 

 Peru in May 1999. 



Support of the Marine Mammal Council of the 

 Russian Federation (Professor Viatcheslav A. 

 Zemsky, Marine Mammal Council of the Russian 

 Federation, Moscow, Russia) 



With the breakup of the former Soviet Union and 

 the concomitant changes within its scientific infra- 

 structure, there is a risk that many years of data on 

 marine mammals collected under the old Soviet 

 regime will be lost. To maintain continuity within the 

 Russian marine mammal research community and to 

 prevent the loss of these data, the Marine Mammal 

 Council of the Russian Federation was formed. This 

 contract provides support to the Council to (1) devel- 

 op a computerized database of all scientific papers on 

 marine mammals published in the former Soviet 

 Union and the Russian Federation firom 1946 through 

 1998; (2) develop a computerized database on all 

 pinniped harvests from 1960 through 1990, including 

 biological data collected from harvested animals; (3) 

 prepare monographs on ice seals and fiir seals that 



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