NMFS Biological Opinion on U.S. Navy training ... - Govsupport.us

FINAL PROGRAMMATIC BIOLOGICAL OPINION ON U.S. NAVY ACTIVITIES IN THE HAWAII RANGE COMPLEX 2008-2013
by a wild marine mammal; (5) leave the water if approached while swimming; and (6) never feed wild marine
mammals. In January 2002, <strong>NMFS</strong> also published an official policy on human interactions with wild marine mammals
which states that: “NOAA Fisheries cannot support, condone, approve or authorize activities that involve closely
approaching, interacting or attempting to interact with whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals or sea lions in the wild.
This includes attempting to swim with, pet, touch or elicit a reaction from the animals.”
Although considered by many to be a non-consumptive use of marine mammals with economic, recreational,
educational and scientific benefits, marine mammal watching is not without potential negative impacts. One concern
is that animals may become more vulnerable to vessel strikes once they habituate to vessel traffic (Swingle et al.
1993; Wiley et al. 1995). Another concern is that preferred habitats may be abandoned if disturbance levels are too
high.
Several investigators have studied the effects of whale watch vessels on marine mammals (Amaral and Carlson
2005; Au and Green 2000, Cockeron 1995, Erbe 2002, Félix 2001, Magalhães et al. 2002, Richter et al. 2003,
Scheidat et al. 2004, Simmonds 2005, Watkins 1986, Williams et al. 2002). The whale’s behavioral responses to
whale watching vessels depended on the distance of the vessel from the whale, vessel speed, vessel direction, vessel
noise, and the number of vessels. The whales’ responses changed with these different variables and, in some
circumstances, the whales did not respond to the vessels, but in other circumstances, whales changed their
vocalizations, surface time, swimming speed, swimming angle or direction, respiration rates, dive times, feeding
behavior, and social interactions.
Scientific Research
Marine mammals have been the subject of field studies for decades. The primary objective of most of these studies
has generally been monitoring populations or gathering data for behavioral and ecological studies. Over time, <strong>NMFS</strong>
has issued dozens of permits for various non-lethal forms of “take” of marine mammals in the proposed action area
from a variety of activities, including aerial and vessel surveys, photo-identification, remote biopsy sampling, and
attachment of scientific instruments (see Table 7 for species-specific estimates of the number of individual whales
that have been authorized to be “taken” for various types of studies).
Table 6 identifies the total number of interactions currently authorized by various permits that NOAA has issued for
various studies and research. For example, existing permits authorized different investigators to harass, pursue,
shoot, and wound about 400 endangered North Pacific right whales each year for photo-identification and behavioral
observation; harass, pursue, and shoot up to 60 of these right whales per year to place tags; harass, pursue, shoot, and
wound 15 cows and calves to take biopsy samples; and harass and pursue 2,300 of these whales incidental to other
activities. Since the right whale population in the North Pacific has been estimated to consist of between 29 and 100
individuals (less than 30 individual whales have been identified since the 1950s), existing permits allow
investigators to harass each of these endangered whales several times for different research purposes.
Existing permits authorize investigators to make close approaches of other endangered whales species for
photographic identification, behavioral observations, passive acoustic recording, aerial photogrammetry, and
underwater observation (Table 6, row 3). Existing permits authorize up to 6,740 close approaches of blue whales,
13,680 close approaches of fin whales, 24490 close approaches of humpback whales, 400 close approaches of north
151