153 



feeding, with krill patches seen at the surface). 



1-" 3-50/1 3/L 3: The stated length only refers to males. Sperm whales are 

 extremely dimorphic, and females do not exceed 11-12 m (38 ft). 



P 3-50/1 4/L 6-7: The apparent centering of sperm whale distribution along the 

 shelf break is an artifact of survey effort. CETAP surveys largely stopped at 

 the shelf break, where sperm whale habitat begins. Sperm whales are found 

 throughout the deeper waters beyond the shelf. 



P 3-51/1 3/L 2-3: Shoop and Kenney (1992) reported summer loggerhead abun- 

 dance, also based on the CETAP data, of 7,000-10,000. However, any of 

 the estimates do not factor in turtles missed due to submergence. If the 

 figure of 57 minutes per hour spent submerged cited on p. 3-52 is correct, 

 the number of loggerheads off the Northeast during the summer could be as 

 high as 200,000. 



P 3-51/1 3/L 10-11: Source for loggerhead thermal tolerance? Shoop and Kenney 

 (1992) reported loggerhead sea turtles active in waters much colder than 15°, 

 with a minimum of 7°. 



P 3-52/1 6/L 2-4: "AH" can be a dangerous word to use in biology. I have seen 

 adult-sized ridleys off the east coast of Florida on several occasions in January 

 1992 and 1993. 



P 3-57/1 3/L 10-12: Thompson's report was on surveys off the Southeast coast, 

 so she would have mentioned Gulf of Maine densities only for comparison. 

 They would have been data from CETAP surveys (See Shoop et a/., 1981, 

 CETAP, 1982, and Shoop and Kenney, 1992 for leatherback abundance 

 estimates). 1 find density estimates like this not particularly useful unless they 

 are converted to abundances, or used in direct comparisons of two or more 

 areas. 



P 3-58/1 5/L 1-3: Like for right whales and humpbacks, leatherbacks catching a 

 ride in the Gulf Stream makes perfect sense, but there is little evidence. 



P 3-58/1 6/L 3-4: Payne et al. (1986) seems to be the wrong reference here, 

 perhaps it should be Payne and Selzer? 



P 4-20/Table 4-4: Difference (column 3) for April should be 6.7 and not 14.2 



P 4-30/1 5/L 9-11: There is no "normal northern migration" from Stellwagen Bank 

 during the summer (see my previous comment on p. 7). The normal north- 



14 



