Marine Mammals

The National Ocean Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced the availability of response to comments and release of the final science plan for the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program. The final science plan for the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program will be available here.

Section 1604 of the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act of 2012, establishes the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Science, Observation, Monitoring, and Technology Program to be administered by NOAA and to carry out research, observation, and monitoring to support the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem, fish stocks, fish habitat, and the recreational, commercial, and charter fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico. The Final Science Plan for the NOAA RESTORE Act Science Program lays out the path forward for the program.

The U.S. Marine Mammal Commission and its Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals will meet on Tuesday, 5 May 2015, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Wednesday, 6 May 2015, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; and Thursday, 7 May 2015, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Commission and the Committee also will meet in executive session on Tuesday, 5 May 2015, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. PLACE: Francis Marion Hotel, 387 King Street, Charleston, South Carolina.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service seeks comment on NMFS’s comprehensive status review of the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) under the Endangered Species Act. As a result of its review, NMFS proposes to divide the globally listed endangered species into 14 distinct population segments, remove the current species-level listing, and in its place list 2 DPSs as endangered and 2 DPSs as threatened. The remaining 10 DPSs are not proposed for listing based on their current statuses.

Varvara, a western gray whale, swam from Russia to Mexico and back, for a total of nearly 14,000 miles, in 172 days.

The western gray whale now holds the record as the mammal with the longest known migration, researchers say.

Until now, the title of the longest-migrating mammal belonged to the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), which migrates up to 10,190 miles (16,400 km) round trip as it travels between its breeding grounds near the equator and the food-rich waters of the Arctic and Antarctic, according to Guinness World Records.

Click here to read a news article about Varvara’s record swim.

The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has received a joint request from Deepwater Wind Block Island Transmission, LLC (DWBIT) and the Narragansett Electric Company (a subsidiary of National Grid USA), doing business as National Grid (TNEC), to transfer from DWBIT to TNEC, a Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) one year Incidental Harassment Authorization (IHA) to take marine mammals, by harassment, incidental to construction of the Block Island Transmission System (BITS), following the sale of the BITS from DWBIT to TNEC. No other changes are proposed. NMFS is inviting comments on the proposed transfer of the BITS IHA from DWBIT to TNEC. Any comments and information must be received by NMFS no later than May 13, 2015.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has published the draft Recovery Strategy for the Offshore Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) in Canada, and it is now undergoing regional consultations.

The draft Recovery Strategy, background information and an online comment form are available through April 27, 2015, at the following URL: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/consultation/sara-lep/killerwhaleoffshore-epaulardoceanique/index-eng.html

Fisheries and Oceans Canada will accept feedback on the document until April 27, 2015.

Questions and requests for more information should be sent to DFO’s Species at Risk Program at +1-604-666-7907, or by e-mail at: SARA@pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

The Joint Industry Programme on E&P Sound and Marine Life, which is associated with the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, invites proposals on the following topic:

“Long Term Fixed Acoustic Monitoring of Marine Mammals throughout the Life Cycle of an Offshore E&P Field Development” – RFP JIP III-15-03

The RFP document can be downloaded from here.

Submissions should be sent to info@soundandmareinlife.org and are due by 30th April 2015

The Office of Navy Research is considering funding research on the effects of sound on marine mammals. Interested parties should review the following Navy message:

“The Office of Naval Research (ONR) Marine Mammals and Biology (MMB) program supports basic and applied research and technology development related to understanding the effects of sound on marine mammals, including physiological, behavioral, ecological effects and population-level effects. Our current program topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Monitoring & Detection
2. Integrated Ecosystem Research
– Sensor & Tag Development
3. Effects of sound on marine life:
-Hearing in baleen whales
-Behavioral Response Studies
-Physiology (Diving & Stress)
-Population Consequences of Acoustic Disturbance (PCAD)
4. Models & Databases for Environmental Compliance

Monsarrat, S., et al., have published an article entitled “Historical summer distribution of the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis): a hypothesis based on environmental preferences of a congeneric species” in the journal Diversity and Distributions. The article’s abstract follows:

“Aim
To obtain a plausible hypothesis for the historical distribution of North Atlantic right whales (NARWs) (Eubalaena glacialis) in their summer feeding grounds. Previously widespread in the North Atlantic, after centuries of hunting, these whales survive as a small population off eastern North America. Because their exploitation began before formal records started, information about their historical distribution is fragmentary.

The Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA will be running a 5-day Sound Analysis Workshop between March 30th and April 3rd, 2015. The maximum number of participants is 11 and there is one seat available due to a cancellation. For information on the workshop, click here.