Marine Mammals

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has published its 90-day finding on a petition to list the Taiwanese humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis taiwanensis) range-wide as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

NMFS has found find the petition and information in NMFS’ files present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted for the Taiwanese humpback dolphin.

NMFS will conduct a status review of the species to determine if the petitioned action is warranted.

To ensure that the status review is comprehensive, NMFS solicits scientific and commercial information pertaining to the species from any interested party.

The 2017 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference is now accepting submissions for scientific sessions.

The 2017 conference theme is “Ecosystem Approaches to Gulf Response and Restoration.

The 2017 conference invites sessions focused on the following objectives:

Restoration and recovery

Oil spill response and management strategies

Human dimensions

Ecological impacts

Long-term fate and impacts

Breakdown and transport

Data management

Outreach and science communications

The Deadline to submit a session proposal is June 24th, 2016.

Click here for the conference website.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Management publishes a monthly Science Notes. This month’s publication presents new findings from the 2015 field season of the Arctic Marine Biodiversity Observing Network study, or AMBON.

In August 201, researchers began monitoring biodiversity in the Arctic Chukchi Sea from an ecosystem perspective, looking at microbes, whales and everything in between. BOEM is supporting this study to enhance environmental impact assessments and develop better metrics for cumulative impact analysis and a broader perspective of the ecosystem.

Click here to read more.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has proposed to designate the Sakhalin Bay-Nikolaya Bay-Amur River Stock of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) as a depleted stock of marine mammals pursuant to the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
This action is being taken as a result of a status review conducted by NMFS in response to a petition to designate a group of beluga whales in the western Sea of Okhotsk as depleted.

NMFS believes that the biological evidence indicates that the group is a population stock as defined by the MMPA, and that the stock is depleted as defined by the MMPA.