MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1992 
ings, and as appropriate advise the National Marine 
Fisheries Service of needed follow-up actions. 
Publication of Sirenews 
(Daryl P. Domning, Ph.D., Sirenews, 
Silver Spring, Maryland) 
The IUCN-The World Conservation Union’s 
Species Survival Commission has constituted a group 
of specialists, similar to the cetacean and pinniped 
specialist groups referred to earlier, to provide advice 
on actions needed to protect and conserve sirenians 
(manatees and dugongs) throughout the world. To 
facilitate communication among members of the group 
and others involved in conserving and protecting 
manatees and dugongs, the working group publishes 
a newsletter entitled Sirenews. The contractor is the 
editor of the newsletter. The Commission provided 
funds in 1989, 1990, and again in 1992 to help cover 
printing and mailing costs. 
FIELD STUDIES 
Manatee Surveys in the Miskito Coast 
Biological Reserve, Nicaragua 
(Caribbean Conservation Corporation, 
Gainesville, Florida) 
Historically, manatees occurred in coastal areas 
throughout most of the Gulf of Mexico and the wider 
Caribbean area. The species has been extirpated in 
many areas by commercial and subsistence hunting 
and by development-related habitat destruction. In 
October 1991 the Government of Nicaragua estab- 
lished the Miskito Coast Biological Reserve. The 
Reserve covers more than 8,200 square kilometers 
and includes seagrass beds and estuarine areas that are 
habitat for manatees and other species requiring 
special protection. During preliminary surveys in 
March 1992, the contractor counted more than 40 
manatees in two large lagoon systems within the 
Reserve. The purpose of this contract was to help 
support a more comprehensive follow-up survey and 
to interview coastal residents to obtain information on 
local manatee distribution, abundance, and hunting. 
The follow-up surveys and interviews were conducted 
in May and June 1992. A total of 71 manatees were 
sighted during approximately 17 hours of surveys. In 
180 
addition, 122 dolphins were sighted, including tucuxi, 
or gray river dolphins (Sotalia fluviatilis), which 
previously were not reported to occur north of Pana- 
ma. The final contract report is expected to be 
completed and published in the spring of 1993. 
Assessment of the Paucity of Right Whales and 
Other Cetaceans off the New England Coast in 
the Spring of 1992 
(Robert D. Kenney, Ph.D., Graduate School of 
Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, 
Narrangansett, and Aero Marine Surveys, New 
London, Connecticut) 
Available data indicate that the Great South Chan- 
nel, east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is the primary 
spring feeding grounds for the western North Atlantic 
population of right whales, the world’s most endan- 
gered large whale. Surveys carried out in spring 1992 
failed to find the expected numbers of right whales or 
other cetaceans, suggesting that there had been a 
catastrophic population decline or more likely that the 
whales were elsewhere. The purpose of this study 
was to conduct aerial surveys of other areas to deter- 
mine if the whales were present in areas not usually 
occupied in the spring. During these extended sur- 
veys, only a few right whales were found in the 
central Gulf of Maine, and none were seen in the Bay 
of Fundy or Brown’s Bank. However, later in the 
year, normal numbers of whales were found in the 
Bay of Fundy and Brown’s Bank — the population’s 
regular summer feeding grounds — suggesting that the 
paucity of whales in the Great South Channel in the 
spring was not indicative of a general population 
decline. 
Airship Surveys of Right Whales 
off Florida and Georgia 
(James H.W. Hain, Ph.D., Associated Scientists 
at Woods Hole, Woods Hole, Massachusetts) 
The contractor has pioneered the use of lighter- 
than-air aircraft to survey and observe marine mam- 
mals. In 1991, the Navy, the Minerals Management 
Service, and the Commission provided cooperative 
support for airship surveys to observe and evaluate 
interactions between right whales and ship traffic 
along the coast of Georgia and northern Florida, 
