The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a request from the U.S. Navy for authorization to take marine mammals incidental to the training and testing activities conducted in the Mariana Islands Training and Testing study area from March 2015 through March 2020. Pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue regulations and subsequent Letter of Authorization to the Navy to incidentally harass marine mammals. Comments and information must be received by NMFS no later than May 5, 2014. Click here to read Federal Register notice of this proposed LOA.
The Mexican Society for Marine Mammalogy (SOMEMMA) invites the
Marine Mammal community to SOMEMMA’s XXXIV International Meeting for the Study
of Marine Mammals that will be held in Queretaro City, May 12 – 15. The
meeting’s theme is “Multidisciplinarity as a strategy to solve marine mammal conservation conundrums”.
The Deadline for early (low cost) registration is 22 march 2014 (40 USD for
students that are SOMEMMA members, 72 USD for non member students; 80 USD
for professionals that are SOMEMMA members, 114 USD for professionals that
are not SOMEMMA members)
Detailed information can be found here.
FIRST CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED FOR A BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE STUDY ON HUMPBACK WHALES IN AUSTRALIA
Mar 12
The Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Lab at the University of Queensland is seeking expressions of interest from volunteers for a five-and-a-half week behavioural response study (BRS) on humpback whales from September 19 to October 26 this year. The study will examine how humpback whale behaviour is affected by noise from seismic air guns. It is the fourth and last in a series of experiments, known as the Behavioural Responses of Australian Humpback whales to Seismic Surveys (BRAHSS) project, that has been examining this issue since 2010 in collaboration with the University of Sydney, Curtin University, the Australian Marine Mammal Centre, the University of Newcastle and Blue Planet Marine.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has published its aboriginal subsistence whaling quota for bowhead whales that it has assigned to the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC). NMFS has also published limitations on the use of the quota deriving from regulations of the International Whaling Commission. For 2014, the quota is 75 bowhead whales struck. This quota and other applicable limitations govern the harvest of bowhead whales by members of the AEWC. Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of this quota.