Serious injury determinations for small cetaceans and pinnipeds caught in commercial fisheries off the northeast U.S. coast, 2018-2022

The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requires the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to estimate annual levels of human-caused mortality and serious injury to marine mammal stocks (Section 117) and to categorize commercial fisheries based on their level of incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals (Section 118). Serious injury determinations were addressed at NMFS-convened workshops in 1997 and 2007 (Angliss and DeMaster 1998; Andersen et al. 2008), and in January 2012, the agency published new national guidelines for distinguishing serious from non-serious injuries of marine mammals (NMFS 2012). The procedural directive was again updated in February 2023 (NMFS 2023). According to this procedural directive, a serious injury (SI) is defined as an injury that has a >50% chance of resulting in a mortality (NMFS 2023). A major goal of the guidelines is to establish national consistency and transparency in SI determinations. To implement the new guidelines, Science Center SI determination staff (SID) are required to annually review the observer (OBS) and at-sea monitor (ASM) records on all incidentally caught marine mammals that were released alive. This year, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) also reviewed live stranding reports of pinnipeds for serious injury determinations. Determinations made on these human interactions are independently reviewed by another center (Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC)), the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO), and the Atlantic Scientific Review Group (ASRG) before final determinations are published in this document.