UNIT 24 

 MARINE MAMMALS OF THE ATLANTIC REGION AND THE GULF OF MEXICO 



Maine-Bay ot Fundy are available from earlier 

 studies (e.g. 4,000 animals (Gaskin, 1977) and 

 15,800 animals (Kraus et al., 1983)). These esti- 

 mates cannot be used in a trends analysis because 

 they were from selected small regions within the 

 entire known summer range and, in some cases, 

 do not incorporate an estimate tor the probability 

 that an animal on the transect track line will be 

 missed (NEFSC, 1992). 



Status of the Stock 



The National Marine Fisheries Service has pro- 

 posed listing the Gulf of Maine-Bay of Fundy har- 

 bor porpoise as threatened under the Endangered 

 Species Act (NMFS, 1993). The Gulf of Maine- 

 Bay of Fundy harbor porpoise stock has also been 

 classified as strategic because total U.S. annual fish- 

 ery-related mortality and serious injury (1,667) 

 exceeds PBR (483) (Waring et al., 1997). The es- 

 timated annual mortalities from the New England 

 multispecies sink gillnet fishery from 1 990 to 1 996 

 are 2,900 (CV = 0.32), 2000 (CV = 0.35), 1,200 

 (CV = 0.21), 1,400 (CV = 0.18), 2,100 (CV = 

 0.18), 1,400 (CV = 0.27), and 1,200 (CV= 0.23) 

 respectively (Bravington and Bisack, 1995; Bisack, 

 1997a). The annual estimated mortalities from the 

 pelagic drift gillnet fishery from 1991 to 1996 are 

 0.7 (CV = 1 .0), 0.4 (CV = 1 .0), 1 .5 (CV = 0.34), 

 0, 0, and 0, respectively (Bisack, 1997b). The an- 

 nual estimated mortalities from the Mid-Atlantic 

 coastal sink gillnet fisheries for 1995 and 1996 

 are 103 (CV = 0.57) and 31 1 (CV = 0.31) (War- 

 ing et al, 1 999). In addition, harbor porpoise by- 

 catch in Canadian gillnets in the Bay of Fundy 

 from 1994 to 1997 were 101 (95% CI = 80-122), 

 87, 20, and 43 respectively (Trippel et al., 1996). 



To address bycatch of harbor porpoises two 

 take reduction teams have been formed to design 

 a plan to reduce bycatch. The first team met in 

 1996 to address bycatch in the New England 

 multispecies sink gillnet fishery. The second team 

 met in 1 997 to address bycatch in the Mid-Atlan- 

 tic coastal gillnet fisheries. 



HARBOR SEAL: WESTERN 

 NORTH ATLANTIC STOCK 



Stock Definition and 

 Geographic Range 



In the western North Atlantic, harbor seals are 

 common from Labrador to southern New England 

 and New York, and occasionally to the Carolinas 

 (Boulva and McLaren, 1979; Katona et al., 1993; 

 Gilbert and Guldager, 1998). Although the stock 

 structure is unknown, the northwest Atlantic sub- 

 species, Phoca vttulina concolor, is believed to rep- 

 resent one breeding population. Breeding and pup- 

 ping normally occurs in waters north of the New 

 Hampshire-Maine border, although breeding oc- 

 curred as far south as Cape Cod in the early part 

 of the twentieth century (Temte et al., 1991; 

 Katona etal., 1993). 



Harbor seals are year-round inhabitants of the 

 coastal waters of eastern Canada and Maine 

 (Katona et al., 1993), and seasonally along the 

 southern New England and New York coasts from 

 September through late May (Schneider and 

 Payne, 1983). A general southward movement 

 from the Bay of Fundy to southern New England 

 waters occurs in autumn and early winter 

 (Rosenfeld et al., 1988; Whitman and Payne, 

 1990). A northward movement from southern 

 New England to Maine and eastern Canada oc- 

 curs prior to the pupping season, which takes place 

 from mid-May through June along the Maine 



Harbor seal. 



253 



