Serious injury determinations for small cetaceans off the southeast U.S. coast, 2013

"The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requires NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to distinguish between injuries to marine mammals that are serious and not serious. During 2012 NMFS issued a policy directive and procedural directives to establish a process for distinguishing serious from non-serious injuries (NMFS 2012a, b). This document summarizes serious injury determinations for small cetaceans in southeast U.S. waters during 2013. The data included in this report came from various sources, including the NOAA National Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Database, incidental take reports (unauthorized research gear takes), fishery observer records (excluding the pelagic longline fishery), and opportunistic at-sea observations by NOAA and non-NOAA researchers, marine patrol, and private citizens. All instances in the data for which a small cetacean was released alive following a human interaction, such as an entanglement in fishing gear or marine debris or a hooking, or observed alive at-sea entangled in fishing gear or debris, hooked, or boat struck, were evaluated"--Introduction and method. [doi:10.7289/V5/RD-PRBD-2016-06 (http://doi.org/10.7289/V5/RD-PRBD-2016-06)] Katherine Maze-Foley and Lance P. Garrison. "June 2016." Includes bibliographical references.