NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS NE 114
U.S. Atlantic
and Gulf of Mexico
Marine Mammal Stock Assessments -- 1996
by Gordon T. Waring1,
Debra L. Palka1, Keith D. Mullin2,
James H.W. Hain1, Larry J. Hansen3, and Kathryn D. Bisack1
1National
Marine Fisheries Serv., Woods Hole Lab., 166 Water St., Woods Hole,
MA 02543
2National Marine Fisheries Service, 3209
Frederic St., Pascagoula, MS 39567-4112
3National Marine
Fisheries Service, 219 Ft. Johnson Rd., Charleston, SC 29412
Print
publication date October 1997;
web version posted September 25, 2002
Citation: Waring GT, Palka DL, Mullin KD, Hain JHW, Hansen LJ, Bisack KD. 1997. U.S. Atlantic
and Gulf of Mexico
Marine Mammal Stock Assessments -- 1996. US Dep Commer, NOAA Tech Memo NMFS NE 114; 251 p.
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Section
117 of the 1994 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA)
requires that an annual stock assessment report (SAR) for each stock
of marine mammals that occurs in waters under U.S. jurisdiction, be prepared
by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS), in consultation with regional Scientific Review
Groups (SRG). The SRGs are a broad representation of marine mammal and
fishery scientists and members of the commercial fishing industry mandated
to review the marine mammal stock assessments and provide advice to the
Assistant Administrator for NMFS. The reports are then made available
on the Federal Register for public review and comment before final publication.
The MMPA requires that each SAR contain several items, including: (1)
a description of the stock, including its geographic range; (2) a minimum
population estimate, a maximum net productivity rate, and a description
of current population trend, including a description of the information
upon which these are based; (3) an estimate of the annual human caused
mortality and serious injury of the stock, and, for a strategic stock,
other factors that may be causing a decline or impeding recovery of the
stock, including effects on marine mammal habitat and prey; (4) a description
of the commercial fisheries that interact with the stock, including the
estimated number of vessels actively participating in the fishery and
the level of incidental mortality and serious injury of the stock by
each fishery on an annual basis; (5) a statement categorizing the stock
as strategic or not, and why; and (6) an estimate of the potential biological
removal (PBR) level for the stock, describing the information used to
calculate it. The MMPA also requires that SARs be updated annually for
stocks which are specified as strategic stocks, or for which significant
new information is available, and once every three years for nonstrategic
stocks.
Following enactment of the 1994 amendments, the NMFS and FWS held a
series of workshops to develop guidelines for preparing the SARs. The
first set of stock assessments for the Atlantic Coast (including the
Gulf of Mexico) were published in July 1995 in the NOAA Technical Memorandum
series (Blaylock et al. 1995). In April 1996, the NMFS held a workshop
to review proposed additions and revisions to the guidelines for preparing
SARs (Wade and Angliss 1997). Guidelines developed at the workshop were
followed in preparing the 1996 SARs.
In this document, major revisions and updating of the SARs were only
completed for strategic stocks. These are identified by the 1997 date-stamp
at the top right corner at the beginning of each report. Except for some
minor editorial changes, stocks designated by the 1995 date-stamp are
unchanged from the 1995 document (Blaylock et al. 1995).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The
authors wish to thank and acknowledge Janeen Quintal for her technical
assistance throughout the preparation of this report
and for the use of her original artwork. The authors also wish to acknowledge
contributions by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center Sea Sampling
Investigation, and by personnel of the Northeast and Southeast Fisheries
Science Centers, listed alphabetically, who assisted in preparing this
report: Nancy Friday, Patricia Gerrior, Aleta Hohn, Blair Mase, Daniel
Sheehan, and Jim Tobias. Also, we acknowledge advice and comments provided
by the Atlantic Scientific Review Group.
REFERENCES
CITED
Blaylock, R.A., J.W.Hain, L.J. Hansen, D.L. Palka,
and G.T. Waring. 1995. U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico marine
mammal stock assessments. NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-SEFSC-363, 211p.
Wade, P. R. and R. P. Angliss. 1997. Guidelines
for assessing marine mammal stocks: Report of the GAMMS workshop
April
3-5, 1996, Seattle, Washington. NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-OPR-12, 93 pp.
