Marine Mammals

ScienceDaily recently posted an article that tries to answer this question.  The article begins as follows:

“Anyone who has witnessed majestic whales or lumbering elephant seals in person would be forgiven for associating ocean life with unlimited size in mammals, but new research reveals that mammal growth is actually more constrained in water than on land.

This finding by Stanford researchers is in contrast to previous theories suggesting that pressure on body size should be more relaxed in water, perhaps because of the large environment and ability for animals to float rather than have to support their body weight on legs.

The U.S. Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management and Budget for clearance them following proposal for collection of information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C.Chapter 35):

Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Title: Protocol for Access to Tissue Specimen Samples from the National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank.

OMB Control Number: 0648–0468.

Form Number(s): None.

Type of Request: Regular (extension of a currently approved information collection).

Number of Respondents: 25.

Average Hours per Response: Request for tissue sample, 2 hours; specimen submission form, 45 minutes.

Burden Hours: 85.

President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 does not fund the U. S. Marine Mammal Commission. A recent blog in Scientific American protests the elimination of the MMC.  Click here for this article.

The Department of Commerce and its National Marine Fisheries Service ask for comment on a proposed Information Collection Request under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.This request is for extension of a current information collection.

Native Americans may conduct certain aboriginal subsistence whaling under the Whaling Convention Act in accordance with the provisions of the International Whaling Commission. In order to respond to obligations under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, the IWC, and the Whaling Convention Act, whaling captains participating in these operations must submit certain information to the relevant Native American whaling organization about strikes on and catch of whales. Anyone retrieving a dead whale is also required to report.