[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 137 (Monday, July 18, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 42116-42118]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-18037]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[RIN 0648-XA440]
National Policy for Distinguishing Serious From Non-Serious
Injuries of Marine Mammals
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of availability; request for comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: NMFS developed a draft national policy, comprised of a Policy
Directive and associated Procedural Directive, for distinguishing
serious from non-serious injuries of marine mammals. The draft
Directives were developed by reviewing injury determinations from 1997-
2008, current scientific information, and a new analysis of existing
NMFS data. NMFS solicits public comments on the draft Policy and
Procedural Directives.
DATES: Comments must be received by August 17, 2011.
ADDRESSES: The draft Policy and Procedural Directives for
distinguishing serious from non-serious injuries of marine mammals are
available in electronic form via the Internet at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/laws/mmpa/ under ``Policies, Guidances and
Regulations''.
Copies of the Policy and Procedural Directives may also be
requested from Melissa Andersen, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS,
1315 East West Hwy, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Send comments by any one of the following methods.
(1) Electronic Submissions: Submit all electronic comments through
the Federal eRulemaking portal: http://www.regulations.gov (follow
instructions for submitting comments).
(2) Mail: Chief, Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Conservation
Division, Attn: Policy for distinguishing serious from non-serious
injuries of marine mammals, Office of Protected Resources, NMFS, 1315
East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
Instructions: All comments received are a part of the public record
and will generally be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without
change. All Personal Identifying Information (e.g., name, address,
etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter may be publicly
accessible. Do not submit Confidential Business Information or
otherwise sensitive or protected
[[Page 42117]]
information. NMFS will accept anonymous comments (enter ``N/A'' in the
required fields, if you wish to remain anonymous). Attachments to
electronic comments will be accepted in Microsoft Word, Excel,
WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melissa Andersen, Office of Protected
Resources, 301-713-2322.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) (16 U.S.C. 1361 et seq.)
requires NMFS to estimate annual levels of human-caused mortality and
serious injury of 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). Based on the results of
a 1997 workshop discussing the impacts of injuries of marine mammals
incidental to commercial fishing operations (Angliss and DeMaster,
1998) and specific regional experience with injury events, NMFS
Regional Offices and Science Centers developed regional techniques for
assessing and quantifying the serious injuries of marine mammals.
Although these regional techniques helped to accomplish the MMPA's
mandates, NMFS recognized the need for a nationally consistent and
transparent process for effective conservation of marine mammal stocks
and management of human activities impacting these stocks.
Accordingly, NMFS convened the Serious Injury Technical Workshop in
2007 to review performance under existing processes, and gather the
best available and current scientific information (Andersen et al.,
2008). Based on results of the 2007 workshop and input from marine
mammal scientists, veterinary experts, and the MMPA Scientific Review
Groups, NMFS developed the draft Policy and Procedural Directives
describing national guidance and criteria for distinguishing serious
from non-serious injuries of marine mammals. The draft Directives will
serve as the basis for analyzing marine mammal injury reports (e.g.,
observer, disentanglement, and stranding program reports) and
incorporating the results into marine mammal stock assessment reports
(SAR) and marine mammal conservation management regimes (e.g., MMPA
List of Fisheries (LOF), take reduction plans (TRP), ship speed
regulations).
Draft Policy and Procedural Directives
Interpretation of the Regulatory Definition of ``Serious Injury''
NMFS defined serious injury in regulations (50 CFR 229.2) as ``any
injury that will likely result in mortality.'' While this definition
provides guidance on which injuries should be considered serious
injuries, it allows subjective interpretation of the likelihood that an
injury will result in mortality. Therefore, the draft Policy Directive
clarifies and provides justification for NMFS' interpretation of the
regulatory definition of serious injury as any injury that is ``more
likely than not'' to result in mortality, or any injury that presents a
greater than 50 percent chance of death to a marine mammal.
Making and Documenting Injury Determinations
The draft Procedural Directive describes the annual process for
making and documenting injury determinations. The annual process
includes guidance for which NMFS personnel make the annual injury
determinations; what information should be used in making injury
determinations; information exchange between NMFS Science Centers; NMFS
Regional Office and SRG review of the injury determinations; injury
determination report preparation and clearance; and inclusion of injury
determinations in the SARs and marine mammal conservation management
regimes.
Accounting for Injury Cases Where the Outcome Cannot Be Determined
There are many reasons why the severity of a given marine mammal
injury event cannot be determined (CBD). In some cases, reports on an
injury event lack sufficient information to make an injury
determination. In other cases, the severity of an injury may depend on
any number of unknown factors. Lastly, the current state of veterinary
knowledge or clinical data about the impact of certain injuries might
be insufficient to make a determination. Therefore, the draft
Procedural Directive outlines NMFS' approach for applying appropriate
methods to assign CBD cases as either serious or non-serious injuries
for management and reporting purposes. The approach includes methods
that can be based on fishery observer data, when available, or
historical information from any data source that provides a valid basis
for analysis.
Accounting for Successful Mitigation Efforts
Marine mammals that become entangled in or hooked by fishing gear
are sometimes released or break free from the gear, but remain hooked
or entangled in a portion of the gear. In some instances, those
entangled or hooked animals are sighted at a later date or time and
NOAA undertakes mitigation efforts to disentangle or dehook the animal
(e.g., via the large whale disentanglement program). As a result of the
2007 workshop, NMFS revisited whether marine mammals that are
successfully disentangled or dehooked at a later date or time should be
considered when classifying fisheries on the LOF. Previously, if an
entangled or hooked marine mammal was determined to be seriously
injured from the entanglement/hooking but was later successfully
disentangled/dehooked and determined to have only non-serious injuries
once the gear was removed, the interaction was not included as a
serious injury in the SAR because the animal was not removed from the
population; thus, the interaction was also not used when classifying
fisheries on the LOF. However, this previous approach does not
accurately reflect the overall impact of commercial fisheries on marine
mammal populations because, by not including disentangled animals in
the number of seriously injured animals resulting from interactions
with commercial fishing gear, it does not account for all serious
injuries inflicted on marine mammals by commercial fishing. Further,
this previous approach can lead to an underestimation of total serious
injury and mortality of marine mammals because it relies on
opportunistic detection and post-interaction intervention by NOAA to
mitigate injury effects.
The draft Procedural Directive establishes NMFS' process for
assessing and documenting these cases. Successful mitigation efforts
(i.e., a marine mammal is disentangled by a disentanglement program and
is determined to have only non-serious injuries when released) will not
change the pre-intervention injury determination for use in classifying
fisheries on the LOF or for use in TRPs. In other words, if the animal
was determined to be seriously injured from an entanglement prior to
the disentanglement program's intervention, it is considered seriously
injured for the purposes of commercial fisheries management, such as
the LOF and TRPs. However, for the purposes of assessing the status of
stocks in the
[[Page 42118]]
SARs, NMFS will record the level of injury determined after the
mitigation effort to reflect the fact that the animal likely survived
its injuries post-intervention and was not removed from the population.
Injury Categories and Criteria for Large Cetaceans, Small Cetaceans and
Pinnipeds
The draft Procedural Directive describes the injury categories and
criteria for distinguishing between serious and non-serious injuries of
marine mammals. The criteria were developed separately for large
cetaceans, small cetaceans, and pinnipeds because the types and impacts
of injuries differ between these groups. For this reason, the draft
Procedural Directive includes three separate sections that describe
criteria for determining injury status specific to each species group,
including three tables summarizing the injury categories and criteria
with an associated injury determination. The process and criteria for
determining injury status for large cetaceans differ from the process
and criteria for small cetaceans and pinnipeds. The injury criteria and
determinations for large cetaceans are largely based on an analysis of
NMFS data on injury events with known outcomes (i.e., survival or death
of the animal), with the exception of a few criteria that are based on
expert opinion or research presented at the 2007 NMFS Serious Injury
Technical Workshop. In contrast, injury criteria and determinations for
small cetaceans and pinnipeds are based almost entirely on expert
opinion or research presented at the 2007 NMFS Serious Injury Technical
Workshop because, unlike large cetaceans, data on injury events with
known outcomes are not available for most small cetacean and pinniped
species.
References
Andersen, M. S., K. A. Forney, T. V. N. Cole, T. Eagle, R. Angliss,
K. Long, L. Barre, L. Van Atta, D. Borggaard, T. Rowles, B. Norberg,
J. Whaley, and L. Engleby. 2008. Differentiating Serious and Non-
Serious Injury of Marine Mammals: Report of the Serious Injury
Technical Workshop, 10-13 September 2007, Seattle, Washington. U.S.
Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-OPR-39. 94 p.
Angliss, R.P. and D.P. DeMaster. 1998. Differentiating Serious and
Non-Serious Injury of Marine Mammals Taken Incidental to Commercial
Fishing Operations. NOAA Tech Memo. NMFS-OPR-13, 48 p.
Dated: July 12, 2011.
James H. Lecky,
Director, Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries
Service.
[FR Doc. 2011-18037 Filed 7-15-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P