Processing marine-mammal signals for species classi cation and monitoring of endangered marine mammals are problems that have recently attracted attention in the scienti c literature. For classi cation it has been proposed to use methods appropriate for non-stationary signals, such as time-frequency and time-scale analysis. This paper shows that a factor that can signi cantly a ect results from...

Comment 1: The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) applauds NMFS for its efforts in developing this policy, which will allow for a more accurate assessment of human-caused injuries and mortalities of marine mammals. The AVMA states that the clarification and standardization of reporting criteria provided within the Directives should prove beneficial in analyzing and utilizing marine ...

Marine seismic exploration has potentially detrimental effects upon marine life and marine mammals in particular. Potential effects range from disturbance that may lead to displacement from feeding or breeding areas, to auditory damage and potential mortality. Nations including the USA, Canada and Brazil have followed the example set by the United Kingdom by introducing guidelines to minimise a...

Upon application from the United States Air Force (USAF), 96th Civil Engineer Group/Environmental Planning Office (96 CEG/CEIEA) at Eglin Air Force Base (hereafter referred to as Eglin AFB), NMFS is issuing regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) for the taking of marine mammals incidental to conducting testing and training activities in the Eglin Gulf Test and Training Range ...

The notion that predators can affect their prey without killing them is widely supported in the ecological literature yet rarely applied by marine mammal studies. We present three case studies in which patterns of time allocation by individual marine mammal foragers were used to index the sublethal effects of predators on bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.), harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), and du...

Marine mammals play crucial ecological roles in the oceans, but little is known about their microbiotas. Here we study the bacterial communities in 337 samples from 5 body sites in 48 healthy dolphins and 18 healthy sea lions, as well as those of adjacent seawater and other hosts. The bacterial taxonomic compositions are distinct from those of other mammals, dietary fish and seawater, are highl...

What happens when you get rid of P granules? Mutants that fail to partition P granules to the P lineage are viable and fertile, suggesting that P granules are not essential to distinguish soma from germline in embryos. Mutations in individual P-granule components lead to sterility at high temperature and impaired translational control of at least some mRNAs. What happens when germ cells lack al...

This work evaluated the presence and the frequency of occurrence of marine litter in the gastrointestinal tract of 31 Caretta caretta found stranded or accidentally bycaught in the North Tyrrhenian Sea. Marine debris were present in 71% of specimens and were subdivided in different categories according to Fulmar Protocol (OSPAR 2008). The main type of marine debris found was user plastic, with ...

With the growing utilization and exploration of the ocean, anthropogenic noise increases significantly and gives rise to a new kind of pollution: noise pollution. In this review, the source and the characteristics of noise in the sea, the significance of sound to marine organisms, and the impacts of noise on marine organisms are summarized. In general, the studies about the impact of noise on m...