Alaska Marine Mammal Stock Assessments, 2019

"On 30 April 1994, Public Law 103-238 was enacted allowing significant changes to provisions within the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Interactions between marine mammals and commercial fisheries are addressed under three new sections. This new regime replaced the interim exemption that has regulated fisheries-related incidental takes since 1988. Section 117, Stock Assessments, required the establishment of three regional scientific review groups to advise and report on the status of marine mammal stocks within Alaska waters, along the Pacific Coast (including Hawaii), and the Atlantic Coast (including the Gulf of Mexico). This report provides information on the marine mammal stocks of Alaska under the jurisdiction of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Each stock assessment includes, when available, a description of the stock’s geographic range; a minimum population estimate; current population trends; current and maximum net productivity rates; optimum sustainable population levels and allowable removal levels; estimates of annual human-caused mortality and serious injury through interactions with commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries, takes by subsistence hunters, and other human-caused events (e.g., entanglement in marine debris, ship strikes); and habitat concerns. The commercial fishery interaction data will be used to evaluate the progress of each fishery towards achieving the MMPA’s goal of zero fishery-related mortality and serious injury of marine mammals"--Preface.