§ Information for Leeds, West, Leeds metropolitan district council area and West Yorkshire is unavailable and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The information in respect of England is as follows:
§ Council's sea mammal research unit show that grey seal populations continue to increase. Common seal numbers are now stable following the 1988 viral epidemic, and we hope to see signs of recovery soon. As far as dolphins are concerned no reliable estimates of population are available.
§ My Department has already commissioned a number of new research projects on marine mammals including the appointment of a co-ordinator to oversee the recording and sampling of marine mammal strandings in England and Wales, the carrying out of post mortem and 127W contaminant analysis for selected cetaceans, including dolphins, washed ashore and support for improved sighting schemes and population studies.
§ More generally the initiatives we have taken to implement measures agreed at the third North sea conference, held in the Hague in March 1990, which apply to all our coastal waters, will do much to improve the quality of our seas. Marine mammals may be particularly at risk from PCBs which can accumulate in their fatty tissues and notable amongst the third conference measures is the agreement to phase out and destroy all remaining identifiable uses of PCBs by 1999.