Mortality and serious injury determinations for baleen whale stocks along the United States eastern seaboard and adjacent Canadian maritimes, 2001-2005

Details

• Personal Author:
  Nelson, Misty ; Garron, Mendy ; Merrick, Richard L. ; Pace, Richard M. ; Cole, Timothy V. N.
• Corporate Authors:
  Northeast Fisheries Science Center (U.S.)
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; NEFSC (Northeast Fisheries Science Center)
• Description:
  The Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) has developed protocols for determining large whale serious injuries and human-caused mortalities. This report describes determinations made for events occurring from 2001-2005 involving stocks of right, humpback, fin, sei, blue, minke, and Brydes whales along the eastern seaboard of the United States and adjacent Canadian Maritimes. A total of 417 unique large whale events was reported during the period, including carcasses (both beached and at sea) and live whales sighted at sea. We received 151 entanglement reports and 48 reports of ship strikes. We were able to verify 133 entanglement events, 42 ship strikes, and 292 mortalities. Entanglements were identified as the cause of 26 whale deaths and ship strikes the cause of 27; 223 mortalities (76%) lacked sufficient evidence to determine cause of death. Entanglements were determined to have caused serious injury in 11 events, and 1 serious injury was caused by a vessel strike. Seventy (53%) of the verified entanglement events and 9 (21%) of the ship strike events were determined to have not caused serious injury or death; 21 (16%) entanglement events and 2 (5%) ship strike events lacked sufficient evidence for determination. Minke whales had the greatest number of entanglement mortalities (n=11). Humpback whales had the highest number of serious injury events resulting from entanglements (n=6). Right whales and fin whales both had 8 mortalities from ship strikes. These human-caused mortality and serious injury rates represent the minimum levels of impact to these stocks.
• Content Notes:
  by Misty Nelson, Mendy Garron, Richard L. Merrick, Richard M. Pace III, and Timothy V.N. Cole. ; "February 2007." ; Includes bibliographical references (page 6).
• Series:
  Northeast Fisheries Science Center reference document ; 07-05
• Document Type:
  Reference Document
• Place as Subject:
  United States ; Atlantic Coast (New England) ; North Atlantic Ocean ; Atlantic Coast (North America)
• Rights Information:
  Public Domain
• Compliance:
  Library
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/5249/noaa_5249_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 208.39 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:36277217577aea3e459d3285a0f197b8bc486bf53b25f030ea52d0b7914b9efb17d776dbfe6ba4432deeeaee509c7455319bb9285fdfd236dd4cee1b6885b0d0