The Marine Mammal Commission held its annual meeting and addressed a wide range of challenges.
Of particular interest was a presentation by Mr. Don Schregardus, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy- Environment who presented the Navy views on the Marine Mammal Protection Act. His conclusions included the following:
“Length of time necessary to obtain authorizations (>5 yrs) threatens mission critical training.
Current process is costly ($500M+ over ten yrs), manpower intensive, lengthy (4-6 yrs for each range) and unending (MMPA limits LOA to 5 years maximum).”
Hopefully the Commission will address some of these observations during the next year and report on them at the next meeting.
The complete meeting agenda is available here.
Time to change the “Marine Mammal Protection Act” to the “Marine Mammal Management Act”
Example: Iceland is irate at the US for diplomatically questioning its whaling which it says is just as sustainable as US Bowhead whaling in the Arctic. This raises a question as to whether it is time to revisit the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In a world where global management is being achieved for fisheries should some animals be sacrosanct; never to be scientifically managed?
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25znymPyvl4
Marine Mammal Management options are needed with Increasing Marine Mammal Stocks
Management options are needed before and after a marine mammal stock (population size) reaches the level of optimum sustainable population (OSP). Many marine mammal stocks have reached their OSP. OSP is defined as “the number of animals which will result in the maximum productivity of the population or the species”.
Presentation by Michael C. Runge, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Center, at the Marine Mammal Commission 2014 Annual Meeting.
http://www.mmc.gov/pdf/runge_mmc_0514.pdf