Section 7 

 CONCLUSIONS 



The major unanticipated problem encountered in the pilot interview program was 

 the difficulty in securing the cooperation of the oil companies. Lack of oil 

 company support caused less data to be collected in the pilot program than had 

 been anticipated. A great deal of time and effort was expended in trying to 

 get permission to conduct "some sort of a program." In some cases permission 

 was refused. In other cases, interviews were only permitted "if they didn't 

 interfere with schedules." It was thus necessary to conduct hurried interviews 

 with men on their way to or from work. Most of the men interviewed were 

 interested and cooperative, however. 



Fewer sighting cards were returned than had been anticipated. Part of this 

 lack of response may have been because men were not encouraged to cooperate. 

 Response seemed to be picking up at Aminoil's Platform Emmy, however. Six 

 cards were in the box the last time the platform was monitored. Because of 

 the small amount of data, the computer program yielded little useful information. 



It is likely that some of the difficulties encountered in the pilot program 

 will disappear as the interview program proceeds. Once the oil companies have 

 been shown that the interview program can be conducted without interrupting 

 the men's work, the companies may become more helpful. As the men fill out 

 the sighting cards they will find that the process can be done easily and 

 rapidly. The sighting cards will teach them what characteristics of marine 

 mammals are important to look for, so that in the future they may be able to 

 check more boxes which will enable the computer program to make more positive 

 identifications. 



B-92 



@3I 



