Chapter IX — Research and Studies Program 



Identification of Programs Needed To Meet the 

 Monitoring Requirements of Section 101(a)(5) of 

 the Marine Mammal Protection Act 

 (Bruce R. Mate, Ph.D., Marine Science Center, 

 Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon) 



On 18 July 1990, the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service published in the Federal Register a final rule 

 authorizing the non-lethal take of six species of 

 marine mammals (bowhead, gray, and beluga whales 

 and bearded, ringed, and spotted seals) incidental to 

 oil and gas exploration activities in the Beaufort and 

 Chukchi Seas from 1990 to 1995. Section 228.37 of 

 the rule states, among other things, that applicants for 

 letters of authorization must include a site-specific 

 plan to monitor the effects on populations of marine 

 mammals that are present during exploratory activities 

 and that these plans must be approved by the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service. Monitoring requirements 

 were not specified in the rule and, therefore, on 25 

 February 1991, the National Marine Fisheries Service 

 and the Minerals Management Service cooperatively 

 sponsored a workshop to develop site-specific moni- 

 toring guidelines for the 1991 exploration season. 

 The Marine Mammal Commission provided support 

 for the contractor to attend and prepare a report on 

 the major issues raised at the meeting. The 

 contractor's report included suggestions and recom- 

 mendations that served as the basis for follow-up 

 actions described in Chapter Vni. 



LIFE HISTORY STUDIES 



Harbor Porpoise Age Determination by Tooth 



Sectioning 



(Andrew J. Read, Ph.D., Dolphin Biology Research 



Institute, Sarasota, Florida) 



In 1990, the subcommittee on small cetaceans of 

 the International Whaling Commission's Scientific 

 Committee concluded that, despite numerous indirect 

 and direct catches of harbor porpoises, basic informa- 

 tion on the life history of this species was not avail- 

 able. In particular, the age structure and reproductive 

 parameters of regional populations were either poorly 

 documented or unknown. As noted in Chapter II, 

 large numbers of harbor porpoises strand or are taken 



incidentally in commercial fisheries within the U.S. 

 Exclusive Economic Zone and in many other areas 

 worldwide. The Commission provided partial support 

 for this study to determine, by means of growth layers 

 in teeth, the ages of strandol and incidentally taken 

 harbor porpoises being held in collections maintained 

 by the New England Aquarium and the Smithsonian 

 Institution's National Museum of Natural History. 

 The study is expected to determine whether certain 

 age classes are under- or over-represented in the 

 collections and whether the ages of incidentally caught 

 stranded animals have changed over time. The latter 

 may indicate the degree to which the harbor porpoise 

 population off the northeastern coast of the United 

 States has been and is being affected by incidental 

 takes in commercial fisheries. 



Energetic Studies of Manatee Calf and Mother 

 (Graham A.J. Worthy, Ph.D., Marine Mammal 

 Research Program, Texas A&M University, Galves- 

 ton, Texas) 



Despite the highly endangered status of manatees, 

 little is known of the species' energetic requirements 

 and thermal tolerance. A manatee calf was bom at 

 the EPCOT Center in Orlando, Florida, on 13 Sep- 

 tember 1991. This provided an opportunity to begin 

 studies of milk composition and energy transfer rates 

 and average daily energetic expenditure of mother-calf 

 pairs. The Commission provided funds to help 

 support the study. The results should help provide an 

 understanding of the effects of water temperature on 

 manatee distribution, survival, and productivity. 



Humpback Whale Calf Mortality Workshops 

 (Sally A. Mizroch, Ph.D., National Marine Mammal 

 Laboratory, Seattle, Washington; C. Scott Baker, 

 Ph.D., University of Wellington, Wellington, New 

 Zealand; and John Calambokidis, Cascadia Research 

 Collective, Olympia, Washington) 



In 1989, the International Whaling Commission 

 sponsored a workshop on the use of photo-identifica- 

 tion techniques to estimate cetacean population para- 

 meters. The workshop report noted that it might be 

 possible to estimate humpback whale calf mortality 

 from photographs of individually recognizable mother- 

 calf pairs and other whales in calving and feeding 



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