For about 1 penny per American per year, the Marine Mammal Commission has met its Congressional mandate to conserve marine mammals for over 40 years.
We work to ensure that marine mammal populations are restored and maintained as functioning elements of healthy marine ecosystems in the world's oceans.
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Thank you for your continued support!
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We are committed to our mission under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and continue to work tirelessly on the responsible management of our shared marine resources. In the Federal Budget for fiscal year 2018, passed by Congress on March 23, the Marine Mammal Commission was funded at the levels of FY16 and FY17. The Commission appreciates the support received for the work that we have carried out over the past four decades. See our
Chairman’s message for more details about the Commission’s status in the proposed budget for FY2019.
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2018 Annual Meeting: (sea) lions, otters, and killer whales? Oh my!
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The Commission would like to thank all who attended our 2018 Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA.
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The Marine Mammal Commission held its annual meeting in Seattle, Washington with a focus on Pacific Northwest and Alaskan science and management issues. For the first time ever, we provided a webinar to bring our meeting to those who couldn’t attend in person. Participants (in person and online) were encouraged to engage in the discussions following each session. Presentations and session summaries are available on our
website, along with audio recordings of the sessions. Presenters and panelists from federal agencies, state governments, academia, the fishing industry and other businesses, and NGOs represented a broad spectrum of interests, demonstrating the Commission’s interest in and ability to convene a diverse range of stakeholders to discuss some of the difficult challenges we face in meeting the mandates of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. This involves reconciling the conservation goals of the Act, competing human interests, and recovery programs for endangered and threatened species.
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Supporting Ocean Policy Conversations
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After hearing about regional science and management in the Pacific Northwest at our Annual Meeting, Commission staff attended Capitol Hill Ocean Week (
CHOW), a conference focusing on national ocean policy issues. Once again, the Marine Mammal Commission was a sponsor of this, the nation’s premier annual conference examining current marine, coastal and Great Lakes policy issues. Organized by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, CHOW 2018 highlighted concerns related to changing ocean conditions, restoring marine environments, and more. Recordings of the plenaries can be viewed
here.
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Explore Marine Mammal Health Data
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The West Coast Marine Mammal Health dataset is one of several prototypes that can be explored with Marine Mammal Health MAP.
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In light of the number of health threats that marine mammals face, the Commission has been working with several partners to develop the Marine Mammal Health Monitoring and Analysis Platform (Health MAP), a nationally centralized, near-real-time, system for integrating data on marine mammal health. Health MAP provides online access to marine mammal health data collected through stranding events, health assessments, and other means and allows users to visualize and analyze those data in relation to environmental conditions. You can now explore several prototype datasets from the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the original West Coast pilot dataset,
here with Axiom Data Science! Visit
our website for more information about Marine Mammal Health MAP.
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Community Focus - Alaskan Co-Management Review Continues
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The
marine mammal co-management review in Alaska is in full swing! In May, Dr. Jenna Malek traveled to St. Paul Island with Steering Committee member, Dr. Lauren Divine, to meet with the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Council to discuss co-management with respect to northern fur seals and Steller sea lions. After a brief stay on the island, which included an opportunity to see both fur seals and sea lions, Jenna and Vicki Cornish traveled to
Utqiaġvik (Barrow) in early June to meet with members of several Alaska Native Organizations, wildlife biologists, and hunters who utilize a diversity of marine mammal species. Project Steering Committee members Taqulik Hepa and Billy Adams both participated in the interviews and ensured that Jenna and Vicki had the opportunity to see the highlights of Utqiaġvik, including a trip to Point Barrow, the northernmost point in all U.S. territory, to see ringed seals. The following week, Jenna traveled to Nome and then to St. Lawrence Island with Steering Committee member Vera Metcalf to meet with the hunters in Nome and with the Marine Mammal Advisory Councils in Gambell and Savoonga, which are made up of hunters and village elders. Everyone they spoke with shared valuable knowledge and experiences and we are grateful that it will be possible to include their perspectives in the review. Jenna will be conducting more interviews with federal agency staff involved in co-management activities and traveling at the end of August to the Aleutian Islands with Steering Committee member Peggy Osterback. For more details and photos of all of the adventures Jenna and Vicki have been having, check out Jenna’s perspAlaska personal adventures blog,
The Curious Walrus.
Top Left: Jenna Malek and Lauren Divine in a Steller sea lion hunting blind on St. Paul Island (Credit: Michael LeVine). Top Right: Jenna and Vicki Cornish under the bowhead jawbone arch in Utqiaġvik (Credit: Billy Adams). Bottom: Participants of the Savoonga hunter focus group (Credit: Vera Metcalf).
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Hot Topics in Marine Mammal Conservation:
West Coast Humpback Whale Stocks, Entanglements, and Actions
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A humpback whale entangled in fishing gear. Image taken under NOAA MMHSRP permit #932-1905 (NOAA)
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Entanglements of humpback and other whales in fishing gear along the West Coast, primarily Central and Southern California, have increased dramatically in recent years. In 2014, humpback entanglements jumped by a factor of 10, from an historical average of roughly two whales per year to twenty. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) then confirmed 35 entanglements in 2015 and ultimately a peak of
54 in 2016, with a drop to 16 in 2017. Roughly 70% of these entangled whales were confirmed to have died or been seriously injured. The true picture is likely more serious as some reported entanglements could not be confirmed and others undoubtedly were never detected. Most of the entanglements have been in trap gear used by the Dungeness crab fishery, while the rest occurred in other trap gear, in nets, or in gear that could not be linked to a particular fishery.
NMFS’ best explanation for the spike in entanglements is that a complex set of factors, increased the co-occurrence of whales and fishing gear. It is likely that most, if not all, of the West Coast humpback entanglements were of individuals from two distinct populations that are listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), belonging either to a population of ~2,800 whales that breeds in Mexico (Threatened under the ESA), or from an Endangered Central American breeding population of just 400-800 whales. Although NMFS has not completed its analyses, the recent numbers of humpback whale deaths and serious injuries very likely exceed what is sustainable for these populations.
In 2015, the State of California and NMFS created a
working group composed of fishermen, scientists, environmentalists, and agency representatives to look for ways to reduce the likelihood that whales are entangled in Dungeness crab gear. The group has produced a best practices guide for fishermen, a pilot risk-assessment process, and gear-modification recommendations. Similar working groups have been established in Oregon and Washington. Whether it is these actions or a change in conditions at sea, the number of humpback and blue whale entanglements is down thus far in 2018.
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Marine Mammal Commission scientific advisors, staff, and science in the news
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To continue from the
Spring Newsletter, this quarter of media publications has featured many Commission-affiliated scientists. For a reminder of our Commissioners, Committee of Scientific Advisors, and Staff, visit our
website. Below are a few recent media highlights that reflect some of the ongoing scientific accomplishments of these world-renowned marine mammal scientists.
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Photo of short-finned pilot whale from field work in Hawai'i
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MMC scientist speaks to changing ocean conditions in the Arctic. (
Yale Environment 360 / Google Earth
)
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