quality assurance and contaminant monitoring program for the National Marine Mammal Tissue 

 Bank; and to catalog marine mammal serum samples for use in evaluating wildlife disease 

 vectors and the development of new pathogens. 



Effects of Poilution on Marine Mammals (Chapter VI) 



Marine mammals can be affected directly and indirectly by environmental contaminants. 

 Direct effects include such things as mortality from toxic chemical spills. Indirect effects 

 include such things as decreased survival and productivity due to contaminant-caused decreases 

 in important prey species. This chapter describes efforts by the Commission and others to 

 identify and minimize threats to marine mammals posed by chemical contaminants and noise 

 from various human activities. 



Effects of Chemical Contaminants — High levels of organochlorine compounds, toxic 

 elements, and other potentially harmful anthropogenic contaminants have been found in marine 

 mammals throughout the world, including those that died from diseases and naturally occurring 

 biotoxins during some of the unusual mortality events described in Chapter V. Recognizing the 

 threats possibly posed by environmental contaminants, the Commission began compiling and in 

 1996 published a bibliography of published papers and reports on anthropogenic contaminants 

 in the marine enviroimient and their effects on marine mammals. In 1998 the Commission, in 

 cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Enviroimiental Protection Agency, 

 and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, convened a workshop to review available 

 information and identify critical research needs regarding the effects of contaminants on marine 

 mammals. Participants included scientists from seven countries with expertise in environmental 

 toxicology, enviroimiental chemistry, immunotoxicology, and marine mammal population 

 dynamics, ecology, physiology, and disease. The workshop report, expected to be completed 

 in the spring of 1999, will be used by the Commission to identify and recommend actions that 

 responsible regulatory agencies should take to resolve the critical uncertainties about the effects 

 of contaminants on marine mammals as quickly and as economically as possible. 



Effects of Noise — Many species of marine mammals use sound to communicate, 

 navigate, and locate prey. Sounds from both natural and human sources may interfere with these 

 vital functions. As noted in the Commission's previous report, an informal interagency group 

 was established in 1997 to coordinate agency efforts to assess and determine how best to avoid 

 or mitigate the possible adverse effects of sounds from various sources on marine mammals and 

 other marine organisms. This section describes advice provided by the Commission and the 

 interagency coordinating group, and actions taken in 1998 by the U.S. Navy, the Minerals 

 Management Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and others to implement the marine 

 mammal component of the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate Program; identify and 

 determine how best to resolve uncertainties concerning the possible effects on marine mammals 

 and other marine organisms of the Navy's plans for operational deployment of its low-frequency 

 active sonar and plans for shock testing the SEA WOLF submarine; ensure that high-output 

 acoustic harassment devices being used to try to keep pinnipeds away from aquaculture facilities 

 do not cause serious injury; determine how high-energy seismic surveys and other activities 



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