For about 1 penny per American per year, the Marine Mammal Commission has met its Congressional mandate to conserve marine mammals for over 45 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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A Year in Review: the Commission's 2020 Annual Report
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The Marine Mammal Commission is proud to release our 2020 Annual Report, highlighting our work and accomplishments in the previous calendar year. The Commission has published this yearly report to Congress since its inception in 1974. Within this edition, you will find information on our work to provide legal and policy oversight, engage local communities and stakeholders on marine mammal issues, and more. This annual report was designed primarily for electronic distribution and use, directing the reader to relevant sections of our website for additional information. To view Annual Reports from previous years, visit our website.
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Commission Hosts Mississippi Bottlenose Dolphin Workshop
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In January 2021, Marine Mammal Commission staff facilitated a virtual workshop focused on enhancing conservation of bottlenose dolphins in Mississippi state waters. Bottlenose dolphins in Mississippi and throughout the Northern Gulf were significantly impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and tracking recovery requires long-term monitoring and an ability to identify and minimize ongoing threats. Workshop participants from the National Marine Fisheries Service, Mississippi-based marine mammal research and stranding network facilities, and Mississippi state agencies discussed current capabilities and research activities within the state and current knowledge regarding the status, stock structure, and major threats to bottlenose dolphins in Mississippi state waters. Discussions focused on critical uncertainties and opportunities for enhancing collaborations and expanding partnerships within the state and beyond to advance conservation efforts. Commission staff are drafting a summary of the workshop. The Commission welcomes this and other opportunities to work with federal and state agencies and research institutions to enhance conservation of marine mammals affected by human activities.
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Welcoming our 2021 NOAA Sea Grant Knauss Fellow
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The Commission is excited to host and welcome (virtually for now) Lauri Leach for the 2021 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. She earned a B.S. in biological sciences at the University of Rhode Island and spent several years working as a veterinary technician and wildlife rehabilitator, while volunteering with multiple marine mammal stranding programs. With a growing interest in conservation, Lauri went on to gain experience as a field biologist studying Hawaiian monk seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, participated in aerial and vessel-based surveys for North Atlantic right whales in Florida and Cape Cod, and assisted with photo-identification of humpback whales, fin whales, and gray seals in the Gulf of Maine. She recently completed her Master’s degree in marine biology at the University of Maine, where she studied predator-prey interactions between seals and diadromous fish in the Penobscot River Estuary. As a Knauss Fellow at the Commission, Lauri hopes to gain policy experience while using her skills and experience to support the conservation of marine mammals and their ecosystems.
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Supporting Efforts to Reduce Bycatch Internationally
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The Commission continues to participate in efforts to understand and reduce threats to marine mammals around the world with a major priority to reduce bycatch in both large and small-scale fisheries. In 2018, the Lenfest Ocean Program convened and funded a team of scientists, through the Ocean Modeling Forum (OMF), to develop tools for assessing marine mammal bycatch in foreign fisheries, a key factor in assessing compliance of countries that import seafood products into the United States with MMPA comparability standards. Randall Reeves, the Chair of the Commission’s Scientific Advisers, and Dennis Heinemann, the Commission’s Senior Advisor on Fisheries and Ecosystems, are members of the marine mammal bycatch working group. The working group has produced and is continuing to develop a suite of tools to estimate marine mammal abundance and bycatch rates in different fisheries, and to assess the impact of that bycatch on marine mammal populations. Below is a list of the project’s publications so far, with more still under development. For more information, visit the working group’s webpage on the Lenfest Ocean Program website.
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Photo Credit: Eric Forney, NOAA PIRO
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Mapping for Management - Round 2 of Cetacean
Biologically Important Areas
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Commission staff have joined the second expert elicitation process that NOAA is undertaking to delineate and score cetacean Biologically Important Areas (BIAs). Scientific Program Officer Erin LaBrecque is leading subject matter experts in reviewing the cu rrent knowledge of cetacean ecology for both the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico regions. Scientific Program Director Samantha Simmons and Biologist Tiffini Brookens also contribute to the BIA process as interested p arties. BIAs represent the full range of small and resident populations, as well as areas and time periods where cetacean populations are known to concentrate for breeding, feeding, and migration. BIAs help resource managers with planning and impact analyses by supplementing quantitative information on cetacean density, distribution, and occurrence. In 2015, regional marine mammal experts led by NOAA’s Cetacean Density and Distribution Mapping Working Group (CetMap) published the first round of BIAs for cetaceans in US waters. These have been used to support planning and marine mammal assessments under NEPA, and are regularly used in effects analyses for Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) incidental take authorizations and Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 7 consultations. BIAs are compilations of the best available science and while it is important to remember that they are not binding regulatory designations, they have been used by both the public and NOAA to inform the development of cetacean protective measures, including informing critical habitat areas and oil spill response planning.
The current NOAA-led and Navy-supported second round initiative will update the current BIAs, delineate new BIAs for cetaceans focusing on (but not limited to) the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone and state waters, and extend the previous expert review process with scoring metrics that will provide more consistency and transparency across regions. Each region will submit a manuscript for peer-review in a special issue of Frontiers in Marine Science that is scheduled to be published in late 2021 or early 2022, and the Marine Spatial Ecology Lab at Duke University will be integrating the BIAs into a public, web-based exploratory map.
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Marine Mammal Commission scientific advisors, staff, and science in the news
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Below are a few recent media highlights that reflect some of the ongoing scientific research, collaborations, and accomplishments of our world-renowned marine mammal scientists. For a reminder about our Commissioners, Committee of Scientific Advisors, and Staff, visit our website.
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Commission Scientific Advisor and NOAA scientist, Patricia Rosel photographs the new proposed whale species.
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