Final Technical Report: - Southwest Fisheries Science Center - NOAA

the mere completion of this project. The most critical next steps for full Navy implementation
and use of this system include:
1) Obtaining acceptance and buy-in by the regulatory community. For most marine mammals,
that means the NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources in Silver Springs, Md. [The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service has regulatory authority over manatees, sea otters, polar bears, and
walruses, but none of those species are included in the current version of the SDSS software.]
The lead PI on our SWFSC project (Barlow) has already given two seminars describing our
SERDP project at the NOAA Office of Protected Resources and has provided a basic tutorial on
the use of the software. To be accepted as the “best available information” on the density of
ceteceans, that office needs to be convinced that the scientific basis for the model-based
estimates is sound. We have been pursuing that goal by publishing our methods as we develop
them (see Appendix C). Furthermore, the developers of our models include some of NOAA’s
own experts on the estimation of cetacean abundance from line-transect surveys (Barlow,
Gerrodette, and Forney). Unfortunately, the NOAA expertise on the SWFSC SERDP team is
entirely based on the US West Coast. NOAA experts on line-transect estimation on the US East
Coast and Gulf of Mexico were not directly involved in the Duke SERDP modeling project
(although they did provide their data). To facilitate NOAA buy-in at all levels, the NOAA
cetacean researchers along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico need to also be convinced that the
methods we used are sound and result in scientifically defensible estimates of cetacean density.
Again, that might be best facilitated by direct face-to-face meetings, perhaps with a seminar to
introduce the methods and a workshop to familiarize them with the SDSS software.
2) Establishing a program for continued development of habitat-based density models for
cetaceans in new areas, for other species of marine mammals, and, when new survey data
become available, for cetaceans in areas that are already modeled. Although density models are
now developed for many areas in the Pacific, many other areas are not covered. Data are
currently too sparse to model cetacean densities around Hawaii and the Northern Marianas
Islands, two areas with considerable Naval activities. Similar critical gaps in information exist in
the Bahamas and Caribbean. Habitat models currently do not include any pinnipeds, sea otters,
or manatees. Densities were also not modeled for near-shore cetaceans (harbor porpoises, gray
whales (Eschrichtius robustus), and coastal bottle-nose dolphins). The methods we have
developed here for offshore cetaceans could easily be extended to model the at-sea densities of
pinniped species and (with modifications) nearshore cetaceans. Finally, there is a need to
continually update habitat models as new information becomes available. A 4-month survey of
cetaceans in the CCE was completed by the SWFSC in 2008, and data from that survey will be
edited and could be used to improve West Coast models as early as summer of 2009.
NOAA does not have a base-funded program for cetacean habitat modeling. Although SERDP
and the Navy may want to continue funding these modeling efforts, a base-funded NOAA
program might provide more continuity. However it is funded, new modeling efforts will be
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