Serious injury determinations for baleen whale stocks along the Gulf of Mexico, United States East Coast and Atlantic Canadian Provinces, 2008-2012

"The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requires the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to estimate annual levels of human - caused mortality and serious injury to marine mammal stocks (section 117) and to categorize commercial fisheries based on their level of incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals (section 118). Serious injury (SI) determinations were addressed at NMFS convened workshops in 1997 and 2007 (Angliss and DeMaster 1998; Andersen et al. 2008), and in January 2012 the agency published national guidelines for distinguishing serious from non-serious injuries of marine mammals 1. The resulting SI determinations are combined with anthropogenic mortality values for comparison to each stock's Potential Biological Removal (PBR) in annual marine mammal stock assessment reports (SARs). This report summarizes the SI determinations for baleen whale stocks along the Gulf of Mexico, United States east coast, and Atlantic Canadian Provinces for 2008 through 2012. The stocks we cover include th e North Atlantic right whale ( Eubalaena glacialis), Gulf of Maine humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae), Western North Atlantic fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus), Nova Scotian sei whale (B. borealis), Western North Atlantic blue whale (B. musculus), Canadian East Coast minke whale (B. acutorostrata) , and the Northern Gulf of Mexico Bryde's whale (B. edeni)"--Introduction. [doi:10.7289/V5VD6WDD (http://dx.doi.org/10.7289/V5VD6WDD)] by Tim V.N. Cole and Allison G. Henry. "January 2015." Chiefly tables. Includes bibliographical references (page 5).