Sources of Human-Related Injury and Mortality for U.S. Pacific West Coast Marine Mammal Stock Assessments: 2008-2012

摘要

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), to document human-caused mortality, non-serious injury (NSI), and serious injury (SI) of marine mammals as part of assessing marine mammal stocks and to evaluate human-caused injury and mortality levels in the context of potential biological removal (PBR) levels calculated under the MMPA (Wade 1998). NMFS defines SI as any injury that will likely result in mortality. While documenting mortality is straightforward, distinguishing NSI from SI requires reliable data on injury severity and animal condition, often in challenging environments where thorough examination of injuries is not possible. NMFS updated its SI designation and reporting process, which uses guidance from previous SI workshops (Angliss and DeMaster 1998, Andersen et al. 2008), expert opinion, and analysis of historic injury cases to develop new criteria for distinguishing SI from NSI (NMFS 2012a, 2012b; NOAA 2012; Moore et al. 2013). This report contains updated records of human-caused injury and mortality to pinnipeds and cetaceans from 2008 to 2012, for marine mammal populations that occur in U.S. west coast waters and which are evaluated in Pacific region marine mammal stock assessment reports (SARs) (Carretta et al. 2013a, 2013b).