279 



DISTRIBUTION OF PORPOISE 



The industry has contended for some time that the distributions used by 

 the NMFS (Stock Assessment Panel) in conjunction with aerial/ship survey 

 data to estimate the population of offshore spotted, eastern spinner and white 

 belly spinner are too conservative. If the range of distribution utilized for 

 these species-stocks are conservative then the populations based upon these 

 data are underestimated. Figures 4 through 6 depict the distributional ranges 

 utilized for the three species-stocks by NMFS to estimate population size. Also 

 plotted are recent observations made by NMFS personnel aboard research ships 

 or while accompanying United States purse-seiners. The observations so 

 plotted have been restricted to those contiguous to or outside the depicted 

 area of distributions. Further, the surveys conducted by NMFS have primarily 

 been to the south and west of their official distributions. Fishing activity by 

 the fleet in recent years indicates that the distribution of both the offshore 

 spotted and white belly spinner above 10 N latitude and outside of 120° west 

 longitude extends beyond the ranges depicted by NMFS (Figure 7). The total 

 observations indicate, in all cases, that the distributional ranges utilized by 

 NMFS have been very conservative. 



FIGURE 4 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE OFFSHORE SPOTTED PORPOISE AS DEPICTED BY 



PANEL OF EXPERTS AND AS INDICATED BY NMFS PERSONNEL; 



OBSERVATIONS PLOTTED ARE ONLY THOSE CONTIGUOUS TO OR OUTSIDE THE RANGE 



[1 1 lisoHIIII I I 1 501 I 

 National Marine Fisheries Service 



1 1 1 1 .70' 



