Chapter II — Species of Special Concern 



in the 19 November 1998 Federal Register that it 

 intends to conduct a status review of Cook Inlet 

 beluga whales. The notice further requested that 

 interested parties submit pertinent information and 

 comments regarding these whales to the Service by 19 

 January 1999. The review will consider the current 

 status of the Cook Inlet stock, including its distribu- 

 tion, abundance, population dynamics, food habits, 

 health, the effects of the Native subsistence harvests, 

 and potential effects of other anthropogenic impacts. 



At the end of 1998 the Commission, in consulta- 

 tion with its Commissioners and Committee of Scien- 

 tific Advisors, was developing comments to the 

 Service in response to the notice. Among other 

 things, the Commission expected to emphasize the 

 need for a cooperative approach to the sustainable 

 harvest issue, in which the Native community and the 

 Service share responsibility for conserving the Cook 

 Inlet beluga whale stock. It also expected to recom- 

 mend that the Cook Inlet beluga whale stock be listed 

 as endangered or threatened under the emergency 

 listing provisions of the Endangered Species Act. The 

 Commission also was considering recommendations 

 on various approaches that the Service might take to 

 reduce the harvest of beluga whales from Cook Inlet 

 to a number that the population can sustain. 



Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy 



Harbor Porpoise 



(Phocoena phocoena) 



Harbor porpoises are one of the smallest and 

 shortest lived of all cetaceans. Less than two meters 

 long when fully grown, they reach sexual maturity at 

 about the age of three and have an average life span 

 of only 10 years. Harbor porpoises are distributed 

 among relatively discrete coastal stocks and occur 

 only in the Northern Hemisphere at temperate and 

 boreal latitudes. Harbor porpoises are vulnerable to 

 becoming entangled and drowned in gillnets. Because 

 they feed on small schooling fish, such as herring, 

 capelin, and silver hake that are either sought by gill- 

 netters or eaten by other fish sought by gillnetters, 

 harbor porpoises are caught in significant numbers in 

 some areas and many regional stocks have declined 

 substantially. 



One such stock experiencing a high level of by- 

 catch occurs along the east coasts of the United States 

 and Canada. Known as the Gulf of Maine/Bay of 

 Fundy harbor porpoise stock (hereafter called the Gulf 

 of Maine harbor porpoise stock), its range extends 

 from the Bay of Fundy, Canada, to Cape Hatteras, 

 North Carolina. The fishery-related bycatch from this 

 stock exceeds that of any other cetacean stock in U.S. 

 waters. Gulf of Maine harbor porpoises probably 

 have been taken in Canada since at least the 1960s, 

 when gillnet fisheries for groundfish {e.g., cod, 

 flounder, and haddock) began in the Bay of Fundy, 

 and in New England since the early 1970s, when a 

 similar fishery began in the Gulf of Maine. It is not 

 known when this bycatch reached levels that could 

 adversely affect the stock's abundance. 



Most of the harbor porpoise bycatch has been taken 

 from these areas in summer and fall. During sum- 

 mer, when most of the stock is concentrated near the 

 northern end of its range, most of the catch has been 

 in the Bay of Fundy region. Between fall and spring 

 the stock disperses throughout its range, and harbor 

 porpoises are caught incidentally in gillnet fisheries 

 for dogfish, monkfish, herring, and shad, as well as 

 groundfish. During spring and fall, most bycatch has 

 been taken between New Hampshire and New Jersey. 

 In January and February, harbor porpoises are taken 

 as far south as Maryland and by spring, as far south 

 as North Carolina. 



The size of the Gulf of Maine harbor porpoise 

 stock has been estimated from three population 

 surveys conducted during the summers of 1991, 1992, 

 and 1995. Estimates from these three surveys were 

 37,500 porpoises (95 percent confidence interval 

 26,700 to 86,000), 67,500 porpoises (95 percent 

 confidence interval 32,900 to 104,600), and 74,000 

 porpoises (95 percent confidence interval 40,900 to 

 109,100), respectively. Because harbor porpoises 

 spend little time at the surface and because their 

 distribution may vary from year to year depending on 

 environmental conditions, they are difficult to survey 

 and resulting abundance estimates have wide, overlap- 

 ping confidence intervals that cannot be used to assess 

 population trends during the five years. However, by 

 pooling and weighting data from the three surveys, a 

 best estimate of population size has been developed — 



35 



