Dear Colleagues.

I am happy to share a suite of products from the Marine Mammal Bycatch working group of the Ocean Modeling Forum.

The first is a synthesis of best practices for assessing and managing marine mammal bycatch, led by Paul Wade and Kristy Long. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.757330/full

A second is a comprehensive review of methods for estimating marine mammal abundance, led by Phil Hammond: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.735770/full

A third, led by Jeff Moore, is a review of best practices for estimating bycatch mortality:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.752356/full

In addition, Margaret Siple has developed a ShinyApp and R package for exploring bycatch impacts for different life histories, using your own inputs of abundance & mortality. ShinyApp here msiple.shinyapps.io/mmrefpoints/ and accompanying paper in JOSS here: https://joss.theoj.org/papers/10.21105/joss.03888.

Another paper led by André Punt explores approaches to setting biological reference points in low-data situations: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.13816

In another paper by Punt et al., Chile is used as a case study for developing a bycatch assessment approach when observer data are limited and there is uncertainty about post-release mortality: 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2020.105816

Another paper by Punt et al. explores the robustness of PBR to a variety of uncertainties: 
https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/77/7-8/2491/5903506?login=false.

The last paper, also by Punt et al., explores alternative bycatch management strategies using the case study of Iceland, with multiple fisheries, multiple marine mammal species, and direct and indirect sources of mortality: 
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2019-0386.

A webinar with many of the authors steps through these resources, which are aimed at supporting nations who are working to mitigate bycatch, especially in compliance with the MMPA Import Provisions. Please reach out if you need access to any of the papers. More information about the working group, with links to all the papers, can be found here. 

Cheers,
Tessa
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Tessa Francis, PhD [she/her/hers]
Lead Ecosystem Ecologist, Puget Sound Institute
University of Washington Tacoma
326 East D Street, Tacoma, WA 98421
p: 253-254-7030 ext 8013   tw: @tessafrancis
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Managing Director, Ocean Modeling Forum
University of Washington
FSH 308B
1122 NE Boat Street, Seattle, WA 98195
@oceanmodeling