The Northern Territories and its surrounding seas are rich in biological diversity and notable as one of the few places in the world that still maintain a primeval ecosystem. The ecosystem of the Kurile Islands, on the other hand, while maintaining a high degree of continuity with those of the Northern Territories, Shiretoko and other nearby areas, is nonetheless undergoing changes amid global warming, oil pollution, oil field development and the like. In this research, we investigate the ecosystem of the Kurile Islands, gathering basic data on the current condition of that chain, an area for which little monitoring or data collection has been performed. We do so partly as an extension of a similar investigation for the Northern Territories. More specifically, we, as members of a group of specialists, survey the marine ecosystems around the Northern Territories, Sakhalin Oblast, Kamchatka Krai and elsewhere. We also examine satellite photographs, aerial photographs and the like to gather information about these marine environments and also compile a database of historical literature on the subject. We are to present our results at academic conferences or annual symposiums. In the conduction of this research, we are to seek collaborative arrangements with: in Japan, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and, in Russia, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Moscow), Russian Academy of Sciences, the Kamachatka fishing ground regulatory bureau, and the Sakhalin Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography.