Requirements Plan for Improving the Understanding of the Status of U.S. Protected Marine Species. Report of the NOAA Fisheries National Task Force for Improving Marine Mammal and Turtle Stock Assessments

摘要

Under the mandates of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA), NOAA fisheries must regularly evaluate the status of protected species, specifically marine mammal and turtle species. In addition, these laws prohibit the taking of protected species unless a specific exception, usually granted through a permit or authorization, is made for a particular activity that may affect any protected species. The plan provided here is designed to provide the basis for improving NOAA Fisheries' protected species stock assessments. The plan explicitly identifies the attributes of a stock assessment that make it reliable, and enumerates NOAA fisheries' goals for the protected species stock assessment program in terms of present research capability and capacity, and delineates the resources necessary to acquire reliable assessment information. Finally, the plan describes reasonable expectations from the assessment program given current levels of effort and support, and highlights the resource gap between FY03 levels of program effort and the levels required to fully meet the NOAA Fisheries' legislative mandates.