Compilation of information for the US Marine Mammal Protection Act Comparability Finding process

Recent changes to legislation in the United States (US) requires that nations importing seafood must demonstrate that they have a regulatory program for reducing marine mammal bycatch that is comparable in effectiveness to the U.S. standards under ‘Fish and Fish Product Import Provisions’ of the Marine Mammal Protection Act 1972 (MMPA). The Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment require relevant information be collated on marine mammal populations that interact with fisheries classified as 'export' under the provisions of the MMPA. The US regulatory program to manage incidental mortality to marine mammals is based on the calculation of a Potential Biological Removal (PBR) limit for each marine mammal stock that interacts with fisheries. PBR is part of a formalised legal framework under the MMPA and estimates the limits of anthropogenic mortality a population can sustain before it is impacted (Wade 1998). This investment seeks to provide the data required to calculate the PBR for various marine mammal populations including: * Nmin: the minimum population estimate based on the best scientific information available * Rmax; the maximum rate of increase or estimated “net productivity rate” * Fr: a recovery factor between 0.1 and 1.0 which allows for the level of uncertainty to be included in the calculation.