The National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) conducts research on marine mammals important to the mission of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with particular attention to issues related to marine mammals off the coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California. Research projects focus on ecology and behavior, population dynamics, life history, and status and trends.  Information is provided to various domestic and international organizations to assist in developing rational and appropriate management regimes for marine resources under NOAA's jurisdiction. These organizations include the NMFS Alaska and Northwest Regional Offices, the NMFS Office of Protected Resources, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the International Whaling Commission, and the Arctic Council. 

Research conducted by NMML utilizes a variety of methods and tools to obtain needed information. Determination of status and trends of marine mammal populations requires information on abundance, stock structure, mortality and net productivity. To obtain these data, censuses are carried out from ships, aircraft and on land. Radio and satellite-linked telemetry is utilized to determine movements and migrations, critical feeding areas and depths, and other behavioral data. Sophisticated analyses and modeling are carried out to determine necessary population parameters. Research programs are carried out cooperatively with many other federal, state and private sector collaborators.

Quarterly Reports

• Probabilistic Modeling of Northern Fur Seal Movement
  
• How Fast Do Whale Populations Grow? Investigating the Plausibility of Humpback Whale Rates of Increase from Life-history Data
  
• Blood-Oxygen Capacity of Ribbon, Spotted, and Bearded Seals
  
• Habitat Use and Seasonal Movements of Adult and Sub-Adult Bearded Seals
  
• Alaska Northern Fur Seal Demographic Research, 2009
  
• Aerial Surveys to Study Bowhead Whale Feeding Ecology
  
• Steller Sea Lion Survival and Vital Rates Research, Summer 2009
  
• Killer Whale Genetics: Insight into Population Structure
  
• Harbor Seal Census Along Coastal Alaska
  
• NMML Reference Collections
  
• The Ice Whale in the Sea of Okhotsk
  
• Telemetry of Ice Seals Captured During a Research Cruise Aboard the McArthur II in the Eastern Bering Sea
  
• Testing a Ship-Based Unmanned Aerial Aircraft System (UAS) for Surveying the Bering Sea Pack Ice
  
• Russian Steller Sea Lion Research Update
  
• Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Aerial Surveys, September-October 2008
  
• Long-term Satellite Tags on Ribbon Seals Begin to Pay Off
  
• Northern Fur Seal Research in Alaska
  
• Passive Acoustic Monitoring
  
• Review of Ribbon Seal Status
  
• Biodiversity and Evolutionary Empiricism: A Systemic Approach to Fisheries Management
  
• Steller Sea Lion Research, Summer 2008
  
• Northern Fur Seal, Summer 2008
  
• PRIEST (Pacific Right Whale Evaluation Study) July-August, 2008
  
• Laser Morphometrics of Alaska Killer Whales
  
• AFSC Molecular Ecology Research Laboratory
  
• Abundance and Distribution Surveys for Ice Seals Conducted from the USCG Icebreaker Polar Sea, 6-27 April 2008
  
• Gray Whale Counts in January 2008
  
• Bowhead Whale Feeding Ecology Study
  
• Comanagement Activities with Alaska Native Organizations
  
• Polar Ecosystems Program Prepares for Ice Seal Research Cruises
  
• Additional National Marine Mammal Laboratory quaterly reports

Publications

• RONE, B. K., A. B. DOUGLAS, A. N. ZERBINI, L. MORSE, A. MARTINEZ, P. J. CLAPHAM, and J. CALAMBOKIDIS. 2010. Results from the April 2009 Gulf of Alaska transect survey (GOALS) in the Navy training exercise area. U. S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-AFSC-209, 39 p. (4 MB).  Online.
  
• GELATT, T. S., C. S. DAVIS, I. STIRLING, D. B. SINIFF, C. STROBECK, and I. DELISLE. 2010. History and fate of a small isolated population of Weddell seals at White Island, Antarctica. Conserv. Genet. 11:721-735. 
  
• BOWMAN, J., J. C. RAY, A. J. MAGOUN, D. S. JOHNSON, and F. N. DAWSON. 2010. Roads, logging, and the large-mammal community of an eastern Canadian boreal forest. Can. J. Zool. 88:454-67. 
  
• Ver HOEF, J. M., J. M. LONDON, and P. L. BOVENG. 2010. Fast computing of some generalized linear mixed pseudo-models with temporal autocorrelation. Comput. Stat. 25:39-55. 
  
• THOMAS, L., S. T. BUCKLAND, E. A. REXSTAD, J. L. LAAKE, S. STRINDBERG, S. L. HEDLEY, J. R. B. BISHOP, T. A. MARQUES, and K. P. BURNHAM. 2010. Distance software: Design and analysis of distance sampling surveys for estimating population size. J. App. Ecol. 47:5-14. 
  
• PILOT, M., M. E. DAHLHEIM, and A. R. HOELZEL. 2010. Social cohesion among kin, gene flow without dispersal and the evolution of population genetic structure in the killer whale (Orcinus orca). J. Evol. Biol. 23:20-31. 
  
• OREMLAND, M. S., B. M. ALLEN, P. J. CLAPHAM, M. J. MOORE, C. POTTER, and J. G. MEAD. 2010. Mandibular fractures in short-finned pilot whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus. Mar. Mammal Sci. 26(1):1-16. 
  
• GARRIGUE, C., A. N. ZERBINI, Y. GEYER, M. P. HEIDE-JØRGENSEN, W. HANAOKA, and P. CLAPHAM. 2010. Movements of satellite-monitored humpback whales from New Caledonia. J. Mammal. 91:109-115. 
  
Additional National Marine Mammal Laboratory Publications

Posters

• Habitat use of North Pacific Right Whales in the Bering Sea During Summer as Revealed by Sighting and Telemetry Data
  By:  ALEXANDRE N. ZERBINI, AMY S. KENNEDY, BREND K. RONE, CATHERINE BERCHOK, PHILLIP J. CLAPHAM
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2010
  (2010 poster, .pdf, 364 KB)   Online.
  
• Aerial Surveys for Marine Mammals in the Northeastern Chukchi Sea: 2009
  By:  JANET CLARKE, MEGAN FERGUSON, LAURA MORSE, GARY FRIEDRICHSEN, BRENDA RONE, CYNTHIA CHRISTMAN
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2010
  (2010 poster, .pdf, 4.81MB)   Online.
  
• Bowhead Whale Aerial Survey Project (BWASP) Status Update in 2009
  By:  JANET CLARKE, CYNTHIA CHRISTMAN, MEGAN FERGUSON, LAURA MORSE
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2010
  (2010 poster, .pdf, 7.34MB)   Online.
  
• Efficiency of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Relative to Manned Aircraft for Surveying Bowhead Whale Distribution and Density in the Arctic
  By:  MEGAN C. FERGUSON, ROBYN ANGLISS
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2010
  (2010 poster, .pdf, 9.47MB)   Online.
  
• Using Cooperative Acoustic Surveys to Manage Small-Scale Fisheries: Relationships between Distribution of Steller Sea Lions, Diet Composition, Prey
  By:  ELIZABETH LOGERWELL, STEVE BARBEAUX, LOWELL FRITZ
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2010
  (2010 poster, .pdf, 3.93MB)   Online.
  
• The Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Opportunistic Database: A Summary of Opportunistic Sightings During the Past 35 Years
  By:  LINDA VATE-BRATTSTROM, CHRISTY SIMS, RODERICK HOBBS, BARBARA MAHONEY
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2010
  (2010 poster, .pdf, 1.35MB)   Online.
  
• Can Northern Fur Seals Tell Us About the Location of and Seasonal Changes in the Bering Sea Cold Pool?
  By:  CAREY KUHN, JEREMY STERLING
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2010
  (2010 poster, .pdf, 431KB)   Online.
  
• Estimating Disturbance of Harbor Seals by Cruise Ships
  By:  GAVIN BRADY, JOHN JANSEN, JAY Ver HOEF, SHAWN DAHLE, PETER BOVENG
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2010
  (2010 poster, .pdf, 3.04MB)   Online.
  
Additional National Marine Mammal Laboratory Posters