Marine Mammals

The following workshop to be held at the 21st Biennial Conference of Marine Mammals in San Francisco:

Incorporating new mitigation technologies into guidelines for seismic surveys and other underwater acoustic activities:

Producing performance standards

Subject: Seismic survey guidelines, mitigating acoustic exposures, new mitigation technologies

Date/Time: Sunday, December 13, 2015; 8:30 AM ? 5:30 PM

Organizers and contact email: Andrew Wright (anwright@doc.govt.nz) and Frances Robertson

Cost: $80 (Early Bird); $90 (After September 15, 2015)

The New Zealand Department of Conservation assesses humpback whale recovery. DOC has counted 136 humpback whales so far in 2015, eclipsing the former record of 106, which was set in 2012. Sightings this year include newborn calves, which are rare in New Zealand Waters.

Click here for more on New Zealand Humpbacks.

The Department of Commerce has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for clearance the 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 (NOAA);

Title: Report of Whaling Operations.

This request is for extension of a current information collection. Native Americans may conduct certain aboriginal subsistence whaling in accordance with the provisions of the International Whaling Commission.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has published its 12-month finding on a petition to list bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) within Fiordland, New Zealand as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. NMFS has decided that the bottlenose dolphins within Fiordland do not meet the criteria for identification as a distinct population segment. Therefore, these dolphins do not warrant listing, and NMFS does not propose to list these dolphins under the ESA.

Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice of this action.

NOAA/NMFS’ 5-year review of the sperm whale’s status under the Endangered Species Act is now available here.

The 5-year review was conducted under section 4(c)(2)(A) of the ESA. NOAA/NMFS has determined that the sperm whale should remain classified as endangered. The sperm whale was listed in 1970 as endangered globally.

The National Academies of Science’s Ocean Studies Board has announced its “Assessment of the Cumulative Effects of Anthropogenic Stressors on Marine Mammals.” The NAS Review Committee will hold its first public meetings on June 16 and June 17, 2015, at the NAS Keck Center, 500 5th Street, NW, Washington D.C. 20001. The June 16th public meeting begins at 12:30 pm.
The NAS describes the “Project Scope” as follows:

The U.S. Marine Mammal Commission seeks research proposals that will improve knowledge of the distribution and movements of the eastern population of North Pacific right whales, and/or contribute to the understanding of human-based risk factors that can be mitigated.

The National Marine Fisheries Service’s recovery plan for North Pacific right whales identified assessment of the current distribution as the highest research priority for this species. Proposals submitted to the MMC’s RFP should address this research priority by addressing one or both of the following research foci:

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has published final rules amend regulations implementing the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan. This action will change the minimum number of traps per trawl to allow fishing with a single trap in certain Massachusetts and Rhode Island state waters; and modifies the requirement to use one endline on trawls within certain areas in Massachusetts state waters. Also, this rule creates a 1⁄4 mile buffer in waters surrounding certain islands in Maine to allow fishing with a single trap. In addition, this rule includes additional gear marking requirements for those waters allowing single traps as well as two new high use areas for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis).

The Ocean Studies Board, of The U.S. National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council, is performing an Assessment of the Cumulative Effects of Anthropogenic Stressors on Marine Mammals. The assessment committee will conduct a workshop and review the present scientific understanding of cumulative effects of anthropogenic stressors on marine mammals with a focus on anthropogenic sound. The committee will assess current methodologies used for evaluating cumulative effects and identify new approaches that could improve these assessments. The committee will examine theoretical and field methods used to assess the effect of anthropogenic stressors for:

The U.S. Marine Mammal Commission has published its Annual Report for 2014. Listed below are a few highlights of this Report:

• Offshore Energy: In response to a request by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for comments on planned oil and gas lease sales off Alaska, we mapped and provided recommendations on environmentally sensitive areas in the Arctic and in Cook Inlet aimed at minimizing the impacts of offshore energy exploration and development on marine mammal populations and subsistence communities that depend on them.