Chapter III — Species of Special Concern 
ies and Oceans, independent research organizations, 
fisheries organizations, academic institutions, and 
wildlife conservation organizations cooperated in 
establishing a Harbor Porpoise Working Group. Its 
purposes are to define the extent of the problem and 
identify solutions pertaining to harbor porpoises and 
commercial fisheries interactions in the Gulf of 
Maine, and more specifically to reduce the incidental 
take of harbor porpoises in gillnets while minimizing 
impacts on the fishery. 
In March 1992 the Commission received a draft 
action plan developed by the Harbor Porpoise Work- 
ing Group. The plan makes a number of recommen- 
dations intended to improve knowledge of harbor 
porpoise biology, mitigate interactions between 
porpoises and commercial fisheries, increase availabil- 
ity and exchange of information, and improve educa- 
tional efforts. The plan relies heavily on the National 
Marine Fisheries Service’s December 1991 report and 
recommends additional and expanded studies of 
harbor porpoise abundance and incidental take in 
commercial fisheries in order to build on the prelimi- 
nary estimates provided by the Service. With regard 
to fisheries interactions, the working group concluded 
that regardless of the size of the harbor porpoise 
population in the Gulf of Maine, it is a desirable goal 
at this time to reduce the take of animals in commer- 
cial fishing operations. To this end, the working 
group recommended (1) greater efforts at documenting 
incidental take, (2) studies to evaluate gear designs 
and alternative gear types, and (3) further research on 
harbor porpoise behavior in general, specifically with 
relation to entanglement in fishing gear. The working 
group also recommended increasing communication 
and education efforts to better disseminate information 
to researchers, fishermen, environmental groups, and 
resource managers. 
Consistent with the recommendations of the IWC’s 
Scientific Committee and the Harbor Porpoise Work- 
ing Group, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s 
Northeast Fisheries Science Center sponsored a 
workshop on 5-8 May 1992 to assess the status of 
harbor porpoises in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean 
and to identify information gaps and research needs. 
Regarding the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy, the 
workshop based its review on a revised estimate of 
harbor porpoise abundance This 
73 
was based on the same data discussed in the Service’s 
December 1991 report. 
In July 1992 the report of the above workshop, 
“Harbor Porpoise in Eastern North America: Status 
and Research Needs,” was distributed to the Marine 
Mammal Commission and others. In the report, the 
workshop recommended research to fill information 
gaps in areas such as seasonal distribution and popula- 
tion structure; demographics, including information on 
rates of survival, reproduction, development, and 
growth; population sizes and discreteness; trends in 
abundance; predator-prey relationships; and the 
extent, location, and levels of direct and indirect 
human-induced mortality. The report cited annual 
mortality of harbor porpoises from incidental take in 
commercial fisheries in the northwestern Atlantic of 
five percent in 1990 and four percent in 1991. The 
report noted that based on available data, the ratio of 
incidental take to population size for harbor porpoises 
in the region may be greater than the recommendation 
made by the International Whaling Commission’s 
Scientific Committee of a maximum mortality rate for 
harbor porpoise. Thus, it recommended that the level 
of incidental take be reduced. The workshop report 
also noted that information is insufficient to assess the 
effect of incidental take on harbor porpoises in fisher- 
ies in Newfoundland and the St. Lawrence River 
delta. Therefore, it recommended that surveys of 
abundance be initiated and that estimates of incidental 
take be improved. 
At the International Whaling Commission’s annual 
meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, on 9-22 June 1992, the 
Scientific Committee’s subcommittee on small ceta- 
ceans endorsed the recommendations of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service’s May 1992 harbor porpoise 
workshop and reiterated the recommendations made 
by its subcommittee in 1990 and 1991. 
U.S. Efforts To Protect Harbor Porpoises 
Several actions have been taken to afford protective 
status to harbor porpoises in U.S. waters. As dis- 
cussed in past annual reports, in August 1990 a group 
of scientists representing universities and research 
organizations in the northeastern United States and 
eastern Canada wrote to the Marine Mammal Com- 
mission to state its concern about incidental take of 
