MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1995 



Northeast U.S. Right Whale 



and Humpback Whale Recovery Plan 



Implementation Team 



The northeast implementation team includes 

 representatives of the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, the Marine Mammal Commission, the Coast 

 Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, the 

 Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, the New 

 England Fisheries Management Council, the Massa- 

 chusetts Water Resources Agency, MASSPORT, the 

 Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management Office, the 

 Massachusetts Office of Non-Game and Endangered 

 Species, the New England Aquarium, the Center for 

 Coastal Studies, and the University of Rhode Island. 

 At its initial and only meeting in 1994, the team 

 agreed that attention should be directed to work on 

 reducing ship collisions and entanglement in fishing 

 gear, encouraging high priority research, and protect- 

 ing and monitoring essential right whale habitat. 



During 1995 the team met three times. It ex- 

 changed information on related activities and projects 

 potentially affecting right whale conservation. It also 

 considered further actions needed with regard to 

 northern right whale research and funding, restricting 

 hazardous fishing gear in right whale critical habitats, 

 advice to fishermen on how to disentangle whales 

 caught in gear, establishing an early-warning system 

 to alert ships transiting off New England to the 

 location of right whales, plans for constructing a 

 sewage outfall tunnel in Massachusetts Bay, and 

 issuing permits for proposed scallop aquaculture 

 projects in Cape Cod Bay. 



Progress on these issues was slow, and the team 

 developed specific advice and recommendations only 

 with regard to proposed aquaculture projects in Cape 

 Cod Bay. A permit for placing aquaculture equipment 

 at sea is required from the Army Corps of Engineers 

 and the team provided comments to Corps and Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service officials who were 

 reviewing related permit applications pursuant to 

 Endangered Species Act consultation requirements. In 

 its comments the team noted the need to consider 

 impacts related to entanglement, physical obstructions 

 to right whale feeding, effects on plankton communi- 

 ties on which right whales feed, and potential effects 



of predator control programs. Among other things, 

 the team identified facility designs that would mini- 

 mize entanglement risks and recommended studies to 

 assess the effects of aquaculture on whale prey. 



Although the northeast implementation team did 

 not take final action before the end of the year, it also 

 considered a recommendation to the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service to prohibit the use of fishing gear, 

 such as gillnets and offshore lobster gear that could 

 pose an entanglement threat to right whales, in high 

 use right whale habitats during periods of peak whale 

 occurrence. At its final meeting in 1995 the team 

 agreed to postpone the recommendation pending a 

 determination of possible action in this regard by the 

 New England Fishery Management Council. 



Right Whale Stock Assessment 



In August 1995 the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service distributed final assessments of all marine 

 mammal stocks in U.S. waters. As required by 

 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 

 1994, these assessments are to provide a basis for 

 managing the incidental take of marine mammals in 

 commercial fishing operations. Among other things, 

 each assessment is to include an estimate of the 

 potential biological removal level (not including 

 natural mortality) that would allow the stock to 

 increase towards its optimum sustainable population 

 level, and a finding as to whether the stock is a 

 strategic stock requiring special management attention. 

 For stocks designated as strategic and subject to taking 

 in numbers greater than the estimated potential biolog- 

 ical removal level, the Service is required to designate 

 a take reduction team and prepare a take reduction 

 plan. Stocks of species listed as endangered under the 

 Endangered Species Act, such as northern right 

 whales, are to be considered strategic automatically. 



For the North Pacific stock of right whales, the 

 Service's final assessment cites population estimates of 

 100 to 200 right whales, but concludes that the 

 estimates are not reliable and that a potential biologi- 

 cal removal level of zero should be assumed given its 

 small size. The only fishery interaction record from 

 the North Pacific Ocean involves a right whale carcass 

 found entangled in a gillnet on the coast of Russia in 

 1989. With no fishery interaction records involving 



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