Marine mammal non-lethal deterrents : summary of the Technical Expert Workshop on Marine Mammal Non-Lethal Deterrents, 10-12 February 2015, Seattle, Washington.

The NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Protected Resources (OPR) hosted a workshop at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) in Seattle, Washington, February 10-12, 2015, to identify safe methods for deterring marine mammals from damaging fishing gear and catch, damaging personal or public property, or endangering personal safety. This provision of the Marine Mammal Protection Act is found in Section 101(a)(4).
The three-day workshop brought together a diverse set of experts in marine mammal biology and ecology, veterinarians, and managers with the goal of evaluating the risks to marine mammals associated with various deterrent methods and technologies. The OPR intends to use the workshop results to inform its development of national guidelines on safely deterring marine mammals listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and non-ESA-listed marine mammals, under NOAA’s jurisdiction.
Specific workshop objectives included:
• Examine currently employed marine mammal deterrence 1methods and technologies;
• Develop criteria by which to evaluate whether available deterrence measures are likely to result in mortality or serious injury (M/SI);
• Identify the methods and technologies that are likely non-lethal as well as those likely to result in mortality or serious injury of pinnipeds, mysticetes, and odontocetes for both ESA-listed and non-ESA-listed species; and
• Develop a process for evaluating and approving deterrence measures developed in the future.