Mortality and serious injury determinations for baleen whale stocks along the United States eastern seaboard and adjacent Canadian maritimes, 2002-2006 Baleen whale stocks along the United States eastern seaboard and adjacent Canadian maritimes, 2002-2006

"The Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) has developed criteria to evaluate reports of human-caused injury and mortality to large whales. Serious injury is defined as an injury that is likely to lead to death. The criteria minimize the identification of false positive human-caused mortalities and serious injuries, and therefore provide a minimum value of human impact to whale stocks. This report describes determinations made for reports received during 2002 through 2006 involving right, humpback, fin, sei, blue, minke, and Brydes whales along the eastern seaboard of the United States and adjacent Canadian Maritimes. A total of 469 unique large whale events were reported during the period, including carcasses (both beached and at sea) and live whales sighted at sea. We received 160 entanglement reports and 43 reports of ship strikes. We were able to confirm 145 unique entanglement, 43 ship strike, and 314 mortality events. Twenty-one (14%) of the entanglements and 27 (63%) of the ship strikes were fatal. Serious injury was sustained in 16 (11%) of the entanglement events and in 2 (5%) of the confirmed ship strikes. Twenty-three (16%) of the entanglements and 3 (7%) of the ship strike events did not have adequate documentation to determine if serious injury occurred. Seventy-eight (54%) of the entanglement events and 9 (21%) of the ship strike events were determined to have not caused serious injury or death. Of the confirmed mortalities, 249 (79%) lacked sufficient evidence to determine cause of death. Minke whales had the greatest number of entanglement mortalities (n=9); humpback whales had the highest number of serious injury events resulting from entanglements (n=9); and right whales had the greatest number of ship strike mortalities (n=10) and serious injuries (n=2) from ship strikes. Poor detection probabilities and inadequate documentation have likely reduced these tallies significantly. The true level of human impact to these stocks is unknown." by Allison H. Glass [and others]. "February 2008." Includes bibliographical references.