Summary

Description

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) mandates that each fishery be classified by the level of serious injury and mortality of marine mammals that occurs incidental to each fishery is reported in the annual Marine Mammal Stock Assessment Reports for each stock. The LOF is the annual publication that updates these classifications. NOAA Fisheries has developed and implemented fishery classification criteria, which consists of a two-tiered, stock-specific approach. This two-tiered approach first addresses the total impact of all fisheries on each marine mammal stock and then addresses the impact of individual fisheries on each stock. This approach is based on the rate, in numbers of animals per year, of incidental mortalities and serious injuries of marine mammals due to commercial fishing operations relative to a stock's PBR level. The PBR level is defined (50 CFR 229.2) as the maximum number of animals, not including natural mortalities, that may be removed from a marine mammal stock while allowing that stock to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population. While Tier 1 considers the cumulative fishery mortality and serious injury for a particular stock, Tier 2 considers fishery-specific mortality for a particular stock. Tier 1: annual mortality and serious injury across all fisheries that interact with a stock: If the total is ?10% of the PBR level of this stock, all fisheries interacting with this stock would be placed in Category III. Otherwise, these fisheries are subject to the next tier (Tier 2) of analysis to determine their classification. Tier 2: Annual mortality and serious injury of a stock in a given fishery is: Category I: ?50% of the PBR level Category II: between 1% and 50% of the PBR level Category III: ?1% of the PBR level Category I & II fisheries are then subject to the Marine Mammal Authorization Program, potential take reduction measures, and must carry an observer when requested by NOAA or its designate.