Chapter II — Species of Special Concern 



mercial fishing gear. Although only two of 43 con- 

 firmed deaths since 1970 have been attributed solely 

 to entanglement and only two other entangled whales 

 were struck and killed by a ship, the low number of 

 confirmed entanglement deaths is believed to under- 

 represent the threat that commercial fishing gear poses 

 to right whales in the western North Atlantic Ocean. 

 An analysis of scars seen on photographs of individual 

 right whales indicates that more than 60 percent of the 

 population has been entangled at some time in fishing 

 gear. In addition, eight whales were last seen with 

 potentially fatal entanglements or related injuries and 

 may have died, and 14 other whales have been 

 photographed with serious, although non-fatal, injuries 

 caused by entanglements. Based on gear removed 

 from entangled animals, most interactions appear to 

 involve gillnets and lines associated with lobster traps. 



To address entanglement threats, the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service formed the Atlantic Large 

 Whale Take Reduction Team on 6 August 1996. 

 Established pursuant to the 1994 amendments to the 

 Marine Mammal Protection Act, the team was 

 charged with developing and subsequently reviewing 

 the effectiveness of take reduction plans to reduce 

 incidental take levels for right whales, as well as 

 humpback, fin, and minke whales along the U.S. east 

 coast. Measures set forth in the plan are required to 

 reduce incidental take levels below a potential biologi- 

 cal removal level calculated separately for each 

 affected whale population. The team includes repre- 

 sentatives of involved fisheries, environmental groups, 

 state and federal agencies (including the Marine 

 Mammal Commission), and the academic community. 

 The fisheries of concern to the team are the east coast 

 lobster fishery, the New England sink gillnet fishery, 

 the mid- Atlantic coastal gillnet fishery, and the 

 southeastern U.S. shark gillnet fishery. 



The potential biological removal level is calculated 

 using a formula intended to estimate the maximum 

 number of animals that can be removed from a stock 

 (not including natural mortality) and still ensure that 

 it remains at or increases toward its optimum sustain- 

 able population level. For right whales in the western 

 North Atlantic Ocean, the Service has calculated this 

 number to be 0.4 whales per year. Given the critical 

 status of the right whale population and the fact that 

 it is the only large whale population along the east 



coast whose entanglement rate exceeds the calculated 

 potential biological removal level, the team devoted 

 virtually all of its attention to right whales. 



To reduce the incidental take of right whales to less 

 than one whale per year, the team considered mea- 

 sures in three areas: (1) fishing restrictions in key 

 habitats where right whales and gear are most likely 

 to occur; (2) the identification and use of fishing gear 

 designs thought to be less likely to entangle whales 

 {e.g., gear with breakaway links or light line from 

 which whales might break free); and (3) efforts to 

 detect entangled whales and remove the attached gear. 

 Although the team was required to develop a plan 

 within six months that all members could support, it 

 was unable to agree on a set of measures to meet the 

 required objective. The most contentious issues 

 involved the extent of seasonal time-area fishing 

 closures and requirements for gear thought to be less 

 likely to entangle whales. Therefore, on 3 February 

 1997 the team submitted a report to the National 

 Marine Fisheries Service identifying those areas of 

 agreement and of disagreement. 



After considering the team's report, the Service 

 developed a proposed take reduction plan incorporat- 

 ing measures in each of the three areas considered by 

 the team. The proposed plan, published in the Feder- 

 al Register on 7 April 1997, included gear design 

 requirements that would have required most New 

 England lobster fishermen to purchase new line or 

 buoy systems intended to reduce entanglement risks. 

 The measures, however, elicited strong opposition 

 from affected fishermen because of the cost and the 

 questionable likelihood that whales would encounter 

 fishing gear in all areas. In the Marine Mammal 

 Commission's 5 June 1997 comments on the proposed 

 plan, it noted that gear design requirements were 

 largely untested and based on questionable assump- 

 tions. It therefore recommended that most gear 

 design restrictions be deferred pending further re- 

 search. To achieve some of the risk reduction that 

 had been anticipated from the gear design require- 

 ments, it recommended strengthening time-area fishing 

 closures within right whale critical habitats. 



On 22 July 1997 the Service published an interim 

 final take reduction plan that eliminated most of the 

 proposed gear design requirements pending further 



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