MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1995 



1995 to (a) create a framework to govern whale- 

 watching, and (b) recommend further research and 

 monitoring needed to assess the possible adverse 

 impacts of whale-watching. With this contract, the 

 Commission provided partial support for the printing 

 and distribution of the workshop report. The report 

 will be useful to operators and agencies, both domesti- 

 cally and internationally, responsible for managing the 

 popular and growing whale-watching industry. 



FIELD STUDIES 



Distribution, Abundance, and Relative Probability 



of Sighting Right Whales in the Southeastern 



United States 



(Associated Scientists at Woods Hole, Woods Hole, 



Massachusetts) 



Twenty-five percent of all known right whale 

 mortalities result from collisions with ships. As 

 discussed in previous annual reports, the Navy, the 

 Minerals Management Service, and the Commission 

 provided cooperative support in 1991 for airship 

 surveys to evaluate interactions between right whales 

 and ship traffic off the Georgia and northern Florida 

 coasts, believed to be the principal calving grounds of 

 the northwestern Atlantic right whale population. In 

 1992 the Navy transferred funds to the Commission to 

 continue the program. In 1993 the Navy and the 

 Commission provided cooperative support to estimate 

 the number of right whales in the area, quantify ship 

 traffic in the major shipping channels, and improve 

 efforts to make naval and commercial vessel operators 

 aware of areas where right whales had been sighted. 

 In 1995 the Navy transferred funds to the Commission 

 for additional airship surveys to better determine the 

 distribution, abundance, and sightability (e.g., percent 

 and length of time and the surface) of right whales in 

 the coastal waters of the southeastern United States in 

 winter. The contract report, expected to be completed 

 in spring 1996, will be forwarded to the Navy, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, the Army Corps of 

 Engineers, and other agencies and organizations with 

 responsibilities relating to ship operations in the area. 

 It will be provided to the Right Whale Recovery Team 

 and the Southeastern U.S. Right Whale Recovery Plan 

 Implementation Team for use in evaluating current 



and possible additional measures for avoiding ship 

 strikes. 



Aircraft Surveys of Gray Seals in 



New England Waters 



(Valerie Rough, Spruce Head, Maine) 



Gray seal breeding colonies occurred historically at 

 Muskeget Island, Massachusetts, and elsewhere off 

 New England. Bounty hunting eliminated these 

 colonies and periodic culling in Canada has main- 

 tained the total population at relatively low levels. 

 Bounty hunting was stopped in the United States in 

 1962, and culling programs in Canada were reduced 

 in the 1980s. Since then, the number of the gray 

 seals in New England has increased significantly, and 

 pupping was observed in 1988 after an 18-year hiatus. 

 In 1993 the Commission provided support for aerial 

 and ground surveys to document the size of the re- 

 established pupping colonies. The contractor's report, 

 completed in March 1995, was sent to the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service with a letter noting the 

 increasing potential for conflicts with fisheries. 

 Recognizing the importance of anticipating possible 

 conflicts, the Commission provided support in 1995 

 for spring surveys of gray seal abundance at known 

 haul-out sites in Nantucket Sound. The number of 

 seals at Muskeget and Monomoy Islands were 85 and 

 100 percent higher, respectively, than the previous 

 year. 



GENERAL 



Citizens Guide to Protecting Coastlines 

 (Brooks S. Moriarty, Washington, D.C.) 



Estuaries, mangrove swamps, salt marshes, kelp 

 forests, and other coastal areas are among the most 

 biologically productive areas in the world. They are 

 nursery grounds for numerous fish and invertebrate 

 species — many of which are commercially valuable 

 and the foundation of numerous marine food webs — 

 and are being destroyed by coastal development. 

 Protecting and restoring these important coastal 

 ecosystems begins with education. Recognizing this, 

 the Commission provided support for the contractor to 

 prepare a guide indicating why citizens should be 

 concerned and how they can help protect marine 



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