A Characterization of Marine Mammals and Turtles in the Mid- and North-Atlantic Areas of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. Annual Report for the Cetacean and Turtle Assessment Program

摘要

This 1980 Annual Report contains the interpretations and syntheses of marine mammal and turtle data collected during the Program's second year field effort conducted between 10 January 1980 and 22 January 1981. Program objectives are: (1) to determine which species of marine mammals and marine turtles inhabit and/or migrate through the study area; (2) to identify, delineate, and describe areas of importance (feeding, breeding, calving, etc.) to marine mammals and marine turtles in the study area; (3) to determine the temporal and spatial distribution of marine mammals and marine turtles in the study area; (4) to estimate the size of and extent of marine mammal and marine turtle populations in the study area; and (5) to emphasize the above items (1-4) for those species classified as threatened or endangered. The study area was defined to be the waters overlying the U.S. Continental Shelf (OCS) between Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and Nova Scotia, Canada.