U.S. Pacific Marine Mammal Stock Assessments : 2019

Pacific region stock assessments include those studied by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC, La Jolla, CA), the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC, Honolulu, HI), the National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML, Seattle, WA), and the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC, Seattle, WA). The 2019 Pacific marine mammal stock assessments include revised reports for 10 Pacific marine mammal stocks under NMFS jurisdiction, including 6 “strategic” stocks: Guadalupe fur seal, Hawaiian monk seal, Eastern North Pacific blue whale, California/Oregon/Washington humpback whale, California/Oregon/Washington sperm whaleand Southern Resident killer whale. New abundance estimates are available for 8 stocks: Guadalupe fur seal, Hawaiian monk seal, four stocks of U.S. West Coast harbor porpoise, Southern Resident killer whale, Eastern North Pacific blue whale. Information on sea otters, manatees, walrus, and polar bears are published separately by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. New information on human-caused sources of mortality and serious injury is included for those stocks where new data are available or resulted in a significant change compared with previously-documented levels of anthropogenic mortality and injury.