PCoD Lite - Using an Interim PCoD Protocol to Assess the Effects of Disturbance Associated with US Navy Exercises on Marine Mammal Populations
Abstract
The approach is being developed in this project has the potential for operational use by the US Navy as part of its environmental impact assessments. In future, these assessments will likely be required to provide information on the potential population-level consequences of exposure to anthropogenic noise from Navy activities as well as the number of animals that are exposed. In order to issue an incidental harassment authorization to the US Navy under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the Office of Protected Resources must ensure that the specified activity cannot be reasonably expected to, and is not reasonably likely to, adversely affect the species or stock through effects on annual rates of recruitment or survival. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), jeopardy decisions are made where jeopardy occurs when an action is reasonably expected, directly or indirectly, to diminish a species numbers, reproduction, or distribution so that the likelihood of survival and recovery in the wild is appreciably reduced. We have recently developed an interim protocol (Harwood et al. 2014; King, et al. 2015) that can be used to implement the framework for assessing the population consequences of acoustic disturbance for marine mammals originally developed by a panel appointed by the US National Research Council (NRC 2005). Here, we provide an insight into how the Interim PCoD approach (Harwood et al. 2014, King et al. 2015) might be used to inform the science that underpins Navy Environmental Impact Statements.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1013974
Entities
People
- Carl Donovan
- Cormac Booth
- Jason A Wood
- John Harwood
- Len Thomas
- Mark Burgman
- Rob Schick
Organizations
- SMRU, LLC