Humpback Whale Tagging in Support of Marine Mammal Monitoring Across Multiple Navy Training Areas in the Pacific Ocean: Preliminary Summary of Field Tagging Efforts off the Pacific Northwest in Summer 2018

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The purpose of this Cooperative Agreement between Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest (NAVFAC SW) and Oregon State University (OSU) is to support marine mammal studies in compliance with the Letters of Authorization and Biological Opinions issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to the Navy for activities in all Pacific Ocean testing and training range complexes. With regard to humpback whales, in 2016 NMFS divided the global population into fourteen Distinct Population Segments (DPS) for purposes of listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Four DPS were designated for the North Pacific based on the location of distinct breeding areas (Federal Register 2016a, b): “Western North Pacific”, “Hawaii”, “Mexico”, and “Central America”. The corresponding ESA status is “Endangered” for both the Western North Pacific (estimated at 1,066 animals; Wade 2017) and the Central America DPS (estimated at 783 animals; Wade 2017); “Threatened” for the Mexico DPS (estimated at 2,806 animals; Wade 2017); and “Not Listed” for the Hawaii DPS (estimated at 11,571 animals; Wade 2017) (Federal Register 2016a, b).