Marine Mammals 

 of the Alaska Region 



INTRODUCTION 



The Alaska region has 39 stocks of 24 species 

 oi marine mammals. Three of these species (sea 

 otter, polar bear, and walrus) are managed by the 

 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the remaining 

 cetaceans and pinnipeds are managed by the Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Accord- 

 ing to the criteria provided in the 19')4 Amend- 

 ments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act 

 (MMPA), these include 10 strategic stocks: the 

 northern hir seal (which is depleted under the 

 MMPA); the sperm whale, the western North Pa- 

 cific and central North Pacific humpback whales, 

 the fin whale, the North Pacific right whale, and 

 the bowhead whale (listed as endangered imder 

 the Endangered Species Act (ESA)); the Cook In- 

 let stock of beluga (annual takes exceeding the 



potential biological removal (PBR) level); and the 

 western U.S. Pacific stock of Steller sea lions (listed 

 as endangered under the ESA) as well as the east- 

 ern Pacific stock of this species (listed as threat- 

 ened under the ESA). Of the ,V) stocks, nine are 

 believed to be increasing, five are stable, three are 

 declining, and the population status of the remain- 

 ing 22 are unknown. 



Flight stocks, the western U.S. Pacific stock of 

 the Steller sea lion, the northern fur seal, the Gulf 

 of Alaska harbor seal and all stocks of beluga 

 whales, are subject to subsistence harvests. While 

 most marine mammal stocks are assessed under 

 the authority of Section 117 of the MMPA, the 

 NMFS determined that management of the stocks 

 subject to subsistence harvests that do not have 

 significant commercial takes should be developed 

 through the comanagement process described in 



Unit 



22 



NMFS National Marine 

 Mammal Laboratory 



Seattle 

 Washington 



Harbor seals, LeConte Gla- 

 cier, Alaska. 



229 



