Page 1 of 2 GULF COAST RESEARCH LABORATORY

703 East Beach Drive | Ocean Springs, MS 39564

Phone : 228

- 818

- 8847 | Fax : w 228

- 818

- 8848 | www.usm.edu /gcrl

SUBJECT:	Response	to	BOEM	Request	for	Information	on	the	Development	of	a Long	Term Monitoring	Plan	for	Marine	Mammals in	the	Gulf	of	Mexico;	MMAA	104000

FROM:	Paula	Moreno, Gulf	Coast	Research	Laboratory,	University	of	Southern	Mississippi

DATE:	8	December	2015

Institutional	Collaboration : We	welcome	the	request	for	information	on	MM	research	that	has	be en	implemented	or proposed	(MMAA	104000, paragraphs	4

- 5) for	the	Gulf	of	Mexico

. There	ar e	a	total	of	57	marine	mammal stocks in	the	Gulf

, where	more	than	half	consist	of bay/sound/estuary	stocks	of	Bottlenose	dolphins. Obtaining multi

- year abundance	estimates

— a fundamental	metric	to	monitor the effects	of	human	activities	and the	effectivene ss	of mitigation

measures

— can	become	cost

- prohibitive	for	any	single	government	agency. In	consideration	of these	constraints	w e	fully	support	coordination between federal	agencies	(nam ely	NMFS	and BOEM),	as	well	as state	agencies	and	academic	institutions located alon g	the	Gulf	states,	to	take full	advantage	of	existing	capabilities. Several	institutions,	including	the	Gulf	Coast	Research Laboratory (GCRL) are	conveniently	located	and	equipped	(personnel,	infra

- structure	and	other logistic al	considerations )	to	conduct	systematic	surveys	and	deploy/maintain	marine	monitoring systems	in	a	cost

- effective	manner.	In	addition,	some	institutions	are	either	conducting	or	plan	to conduct	systematic	surveys,	as	part	of	other	projects	(e.g., Gulf R estoration	efforts) ,	creating	a unique	opportunity	to	leverage	resources	common	to	monitoring	of	marine	wildlife,	particularly when	piggy

- backing efforts is	feasible	and	appropriate. GCRL	has	a	long	tradition	of	engaging	in
inter

- agency	monitoring	of	marine	resources in	the Gulf (e.g.,	SEAMAP	surveys)	and provides the infrastructure to	train	the	next	generation of	scientists in marine	mammal survey techniques and advanced	analyses	of marine	mammal data.	This can best be ac complished by	engaging	graduate students,	interns	and	technicians

— who	routinely	support research	projects	at	GCRL. For example,	GCRL offers expertise	in	photo

- identification	of	marine	mammals and train s	interns	to match	dorsal	fins	of	Bottlenose	dolphins with	the	go al	of conducting	analysis	( population dynamics

, habitat

- use patterns,	etc.)	on	historical	data	sets that	have	not	been	fully	processed

. Support	to	t his preliminary	effort	w ould allow	sustained	par ticipation	of	interns	and	expanding it	to	graduate	student	p rojects ,	as	well	as	engaging	in	collaborations	with	other ongoing	efforts in the	Gulf

.

Proposed Marine	Mammal	Research	and	Monitoring : The	Gulf	Coast	Research	Laboratory, Department	of	Coastal	Science s , University	of	Southern Mississippi,	has	proposed	an interdisciplinary,	comprehensive,	long

- term	monitoring	program	of marine	mammals	for	the	Mississippi	Sound	and	adjacent	waters. To	date,	funding	has	not beenPage 2 of 2 forthcoming

. The	core	areas of	the	proposed	research	and	monitoring	program consist s of marine	mammal population	assessments,	including	population	dynamics,	habitat	use,	site	fidelity and	movement	patterns,	genetics,	microbiomics,	and	various	components	of	health	assessment (e.g.,	individual	stress	response s ). GCRL presently	has	faculty	and	r esearch	staff	with expertise in these	areas,	and	establishe s external	collaborations	with scientists with	skills in	complementary

areas ,	as	needed .	In	addition,	GCRL	is able	to	lead	the develop ment	of marine	mammal simulation	models	(e.g.,	forecast s of	pop ulation	trajectories	or of drifting carcasses ) through	its strong ties to	USM’s	Marine	Science	Department	and	the recent establishment	of	the Independent	Advi sory	Team	for Marine	Mammal Assessment funded by	the	Science	Center	for Marine	Fisheries

. For	fur ther	information

, please	contact	Paula	Moreno (Paula.Moreno@usm.edu).