Marine Mammals

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A new paper on responses of harbour porpoises to a seismic survey is available via Open Access here.

 The abstract of this paper states:

The National Marine Fisheries Service has published Federal Register notice of NMFS’ intent to prepare a recovery plan for the Main Hawaiian Islands insular false killer whale distinct population segment. NMFS is required by the Endangered Species Act to develop and implement recovery plans for the conservation and survival of federally listed species unless the Secretary of the Department of Commerce finds that such a plan will not promote the conservation of the species.  All information on in response to this Federal Register notice must be by NMFS received no later than November 1, 2013.

Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice.

The new rules revise the Plan by eliminating the consequence closure strategy enacted in 2010, based on deliberations by the Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Team.  NMFS explains that this action is necessary to prevent the improper triggering of consequence closure areas based on target harbor porpoise bycatch rates that no longer accurately reflect actual bycatch in New England sink gillnets due to fishery- wide changes in fishing practices.  The new rules have an effective of September 30, 2013. Click here to read Federal Register notice of new rules.

The October 7 Edition of the Washington Post has an article which states:” Scientists link sonar mapping to ’08 whale stranding”.

The Post article  is based upon the report of a panel (ISRP) established by the International Whaling Commission which  fails to incorporate the views of all  the experts who advised the panel. In fact, when the totality of the record is examined the “Panel Report” is in violation of the Data[ aka Information] Quality Act.

CRE compliments the Washington Post for presenting the views of all parties which unfortunately was not the case with either the  ISRP or the foreign press.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has published notice of its intent to prepare a recovery plan for Main Hawaiian Islands Insular False Killer Whale Distinct Population Segment. NMFS requests information from the public on this plan. All information must be received by NMFS no later than November 1, 2013. Under the Endangered Species Act, recovery means improvement in the status of ESA-listed species to the point at which the protections of the ESA are no longer necessary. The ESA specifies that recovery plans must include: (1) A description of management actions necessary to achieve the plan’s goals for the conservation and survival of the species; (2) objective, measurable criteria which, when met, would result in the species being removed from the list; and (3) estimates of the time and costs required to achieve the plan’s goal and the intermediate steps towards that goal.

The  National Marine Fisheries Service proposes to issue authorization to the U.S. Navy to take marine mammals incidental to the training and testing activities conducted in the Mariana Islands Training and Testing Study Area from July 2015 through July 2020. This IHA would be issued pursuant to NMFS’ authority under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. NMFS will consider any comments on this proposed IHA which are received by NMFS no later than October 2, 2013.

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

NMFS has requested public comment on a proposed Navy authorization to take marine mammals incidental to construction activities as part of a pier maintenance project. NMFS proposes to grant this IHA pursuant to NMFS authority under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Public comments on this proposal must be received by NMFS no later than October 15, 2013.  The Navy has prepared a draft Environmental Assessment (Pier 6 Pile Replacement Naval Base Kitsap) in accordance with the NationalEnvironmental Policy Act.  This EIS and other relevant documents are posted here.

Click here to read NMFS’ Federal Register notice for this proposed IHA.

US Marine Mammal Commission Executive Director Timothy Regan has thanked the Joint Industry Programme (JIP) on E&P sound and marine life for “…its leadership in addressing research priorities…” In a letter dated 8^th June, he further noted that the JIP had “… contributed significantly towards research to understand the sources, effects and mitigation of underwater sound…” and strongly encouraged the JIP to enter a third phase of collaborative research efforts.

Sound and Marine Life JIP Chair Paul Shone of Chevron responded to the letter by saying  “… to receive such a letter signed by an Executive Director of a [US] federal body is a big complement to everyone who has worked on this project over the past 8 years.”

Peter Dobbins, Ultra Electronics Irene Voellmy, University of Bristol, are currently conducting a survey to evaluate current and future requirements for Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) devices for research (e.g. aquatic animals, acoustic environments), conservation and  anthropogenic noise emission monitoring purposes. This survey is conducted as part of an ongoing study investigating the current state of the art in PAM systems. This survey particularly investigates whether and where users of PAM systems locate gaps in available devices and how further developments of the techniques could meet these requirements.

Users of PAM systems can take part in this survey and complete the questionnaire on:   http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J355HDV .