[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 104 (Thursday, May 30, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32377-32378]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-12869]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

RIN 0648-XC062


Draft 2012 Marine Mammal Stock Assessment Reports

AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.

ACTION: Notification of availability; response to comments.

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SUMMARY: NMFS reviewed the Alaska, Atlantic, and Pacific regional 
marine mammal stock assessment reports (SARs) in accordance with the 
Marine Mammal Protection Act, and solicited public comment on draft 
2012 SARs. Subsequently, SARs for ten stocks of marine mammals in the 
Atlantic region have been updated with revised abundance estimates and 
some corrections to bycatch estimates. These ten reports are final and 
available to the public.

ADDRESSES: The 2012 final SARs and supporting documentation are 
available in electronic form via the Internet at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/sars/species.htm. Copies of the Atlantic SARs may 
be requested from Gordon Waring, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 
166 Water St., Woods Hole, MA 02543.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shannon Bettridge, Office of Protected 
Resources, 301-427-8402, [email protected]; or Gordon Waring, 
508-495-2311, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 117 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) (16 U.S.C. 
1361 et seq.) requires NMFS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
(FWS) to prepare stock assessments for each stock of marine mammals 
occurring in waters under the jurisdiction of the United States. These 
reports must contain information regarding the distribution and 
abundance of the stock, population growth rates and trends, estimates 
of annual human-caused mortality and serious injury from all sources, 
descriptions of the fisheries with which the stock interacts, and the 
status of the stock. Initial reports were completed in 1995.
    The MMPA requires NMFS and FWS to review the SARs at least annually 
for strategic stocks and stocks for which significant new information 
is available, and at least once every three years for non-strategic 
stocks. The term strategic stock means a marine mammal stock: (A) For 
which the level of direct human-caused mortality exceeds the potential 
biological removal level; (B) which, based on the best available 
scientific information, is declining and is likely to be listed as a 
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act within the 
foreseeable future; or (C) which is listed as a threatened species or 
endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. NMFS and the FWS 
are required to revise a SAR if the status of the stock has changed or 
can be more accurately determined. NMFS, in conjunction with the 
Alaska, Atlantic, and Pacific independent Scientific Review Groups 
(SRGs), reviewed the status of marine mammal stocks as required and 
revised reports in the Alaska, Atlantic, and Pacific regions to 
incorporate new information. NMFS solicited public comments on the 
draft 2012 SARs on August 7, 2012 (77 FR 47043); the 90-day public 
comment period closed on November 5, 2012.
    Subsequent to soliciting public comment on the draft 2012 SARs, 
NMFS revised the 2011 abundance estimates and the 2010 northeast sink 
gillnet serious injury and mortality estimates for several Atlantic 
marine mammal stocks after discovering errors based upon further review 
of the abundance estimation methods and upon receiving updated bycatch 
data. This new information prompted the agency to correct and revise 
the SARs for the following marine mammal stocks affected by these 
updates: fin whale, western North Atlantic stock; sei whale, Nova 
Scotia stock; minke whale Canadian east coast stock; sperm whale, North 
Atlantic stock; Cuvier's beaked whale, western North Atlantic stock; 
Gervais' beaked whale, western North Atlantic stock; Sowerby's beaked 
whale, western North Atlantic stock; Risso's dolphin, western North 
Atlantic stock; Atlantic white-sided dolphin, western North Atlantic 
stock; and harbor porpoise, Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy stock. NMFS 
solicited public comment on the revised draft 2012 SARs for these ten 
stocks (78 FR 3399, January 16, 2013). The public comment period on the 
revised reports closed on April 16, 2013. This notice announces the 
availability of the final 2012 reports for the ten stocks identified 
above; the reports are available on NMFS' Web site (see ADDRESSES).

Comments and Responses

    NMFS received comments on the ten revised draft Atlantic SARs from 
the Marine Mammal Commission (Commission), the Humane Society of the 
United States and the Center for Biological Diversity, two individuals, 
and the National Park Service.
    Comment 1: The Commission recommends that NMFS expand the report 
for the Gulf of Maine harbor porpoise either to include a trend 
analysis and explanation, or to describe the reasons that the analysis 
and explanation cannot be provided. If the latter, then the Service 
also should explain how it plans to rectify the problem(s).
    Response: The trend section of the report was revised to include 
the following text: ``A trend analysis has not been conducted for this 
stock. The statistical power to detect a trend in abundance for this 
stock is poor due to the relatively imprecise abundance estimates and 
long survey interval. For example, the power to detect a precipitous 
decline in abundance (i.e., 50% decrease in 15 years) with estimates of 
low precision (e.g., CV > 0.30) remains below 80% (alpha = 0.30) unless 
surveys are conducted on an annual basis (Taylor et al. 2007).''
    Comment 2: The Commission recommends that NMFS contact Canadian 
officials to (1) determine the feasibility of an analysis of port catch 
levels to estimate the number of harbor porpoises caught in the 
Canadian Bay of Fundy sink gillnet fishery since 2002, and (2) pursue 
the development of a reliable means for estimating harbor porpoise 
bycatch in the Canadian Bay of Fundy.
    Response: As recommended by the Commission, NMFS Northeast 
Fisheries Science Center Protected Species Branch is contacting 
Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials to obtain 
information on the status of the fishery and harbor porpoise bycatch.
    Comment 3: The ``Other Mortality'' section of the white-sided 
dolphin SAR cites Bogomolni as finding that 21 percent of strandings of 
this species were disease-related. We did not have access to this 
publication, but if the nature of the diseases affecting these animals 
was determined, it would be useful to specify whether all of them died 
as a result of the same or a variety of pathogens. Since many 
pollutants compromise immune systems of animals, patterns in cause of 
death are helpful to provide insight into environmental health and/or 
threats to the species.
    Response: The focus of the Bogomolni et al. (2010) publication was 
to categorize stranding mortalities into broad diagnoses such as 
disease, human-interaction, mass-stranding, etc.

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The authors mention that the most frequently found disease processes 
were bacterial pneumonia and sepsis/bacteremia secondary to pyoderma, 
but, other than mentioning a few specific disease findings, do not 
detail or analyze frequency of all the diseases found in each species. 
The Bogomolni et al. 2010 paper is open access and available at http://www.int-res.com/articles/dao_oa/d088p143.pdf. We have rewritten the 
sentence slightly to read: ``In an analysis of mortality causes of 
stranded marine mammals on Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts 
between 2000 and 2006, Bogomolni et al. (2010) found 69% (46 of 67) of 
stranded white-sided dolphins were involved in mass-stranding events 
with no significant findings, and 21% (14 of 67) were classified as 
disease related.''
    Comment 4: The Humane Society of the U.S. and the Center for 
Biological Diversity commented that the Atlantic Scientific Review 
Group (SRG) was not consulted prior to NMFS using these revised 
abundance and bycatch estimates for management purposes. The commenters 
believe the errors in computation and the proposed changes to the SARs 
should have been brought to the attention of the SRG prior to being 
used in management or presented to the public as part of any take 
reduction team process. In the future, if NMFS is considering amending 
a SAR after a draft was released for public comment, it should first 
consult with the appropriate SRG prior to using a revised SAR for 
purposes of management of a stock.
    Response: The issues raised by the Humane Society of the U.S. and 
the Center for Biological Diversity were addressed at the March 2013 
Atlantic SRG meeting. NMFS and the SRG delineated a process that will 
ensure SRG review of new or revised abundance and mortality estimates 
and methods prior to their release at other forums (e.g., Take 
Reduction Teams).

    Dated: May 23, 2012.
Donna S. Wieting,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2013-12869 Filed 5-29-13; 8:45 am]
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