Concern about the effects of maritime vessel collisions with marine animals is increasing worldwide. To date, most scientific publications on this topic have focused on the collisions between large vessels and large whales. However, our review found that at least 75 marine species are affected, including smaller whales, dolphins, porpoises, dugongs, manatees, whale sharks, sharks, seals, sea otters, sea turtles, penguins, and fish. Collision incidents with smaller species are scarce, likely as a result of reporting biases. Some of these biases can be addressed through the establishment of species-specific necropsy protocols to ensure reliable identification of collision related injury, particularly blunt force trauma. In addition, creating a ship strike database for smaller species can assist in identifying the species most frequently involved in collisions, identifying high-risk areas, and determining species-specific relationships between vessel speed and lethal injury. The International Whaling Commission database on collisions with large whales provides a good example of this type of database and its potential uses. Prioritising the establishment of a species-specific necropsy protocol and a database for smaller species as well as the identification of high-risk areas for species other than large whales, would be a valuable step towards the mitigation of collisions with smaller species.

/pdf/a-global-review-of-vessel-collisions-with-marine-animals-4q5sk3j7cg.pdf

A Global Review of Vessel Collisions With Marine Animals

Post-mortem examination of dead and live stranded beach-cast pinnipeds and cetaceans for determination of a cause of death provides valuable information for the management, mitigation and prosecution of unintentional and sometimes malicious human impacts, such as vessel collision, fishing gear entanglement and gunshot. Delayed discovery, inaccessibility, logistics, human safety concerns, and weather make these events challenging. Over the past 3 decades, in response to public concern and federal and state or provincial regulations mandating such investigations to inform mitigation efforts, there has been an increasing effort to objectively and systematically investigate these strandings from a diagnostic and forensic perspective. This Theme Section provides basic investigative methods, and case definitions for each of the more commonly recognized case presentations of human interactions in pinnipeds and cetaceans. Wild animals are often adversely affected by factors such as parasitism, anthropogenic contaminants, biotoxins, subclinical microbial infections and competing habitat uses, such as prey depletion and elevated background and episodic noise. Understanding the potential contribution of these subclinical factors in predisposing or contributing to a particular case of trauma of human origin is hampered, especially where putrefaction is significant and resources as well as expertise are limited. These case criteria descriptions attempt to acknowledge those confounding factors to enable an appreciation of the significance of the observed human-derived trauma in that broader context where possible.

https://www.int-res.com/articles/dao_oa/d103p229.pdf

Criteria and case definitions for serious injury and death of pinnipeds and cetaceans caused by anthropogenic trauma.

1.
Recreational boating continues to grow in popularity, yet little is known about the effects of noise disturbance from boating on fish. Therefore, this study evaluated the organism-level cardiovascular disturbance associated with different recreational boating activities using largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) as a model.

2.
Cardiac output and its components (heart rate and stroke volume) were monitored in real time, allowing for the determination of the magnitude of disturbance and the time required for recovery. Fish responses to three noise disturbances (canoe paddling, trolling motor, and combustion engine (9.9 hp)) for 60 s were contrasted using a Latin squares design.

3.
Exposure to each of the treatments resulted in an increase in cardiac output in all fish, associated with a dramatic increase in heart rate and a slight decrease in stroke volume. The level of change in cardiac output and its components increased in magnitude from the canoe treatment to the trolling motor treatment with the most extreme response being to that of the combustion engine treatment. Furthermore, time required for cardiovascular variables to recover varied across treatments with shortest periods for the canoe paddling disturbance (∼15 min), the longest periods for the combustion engine (∼40 min), and intermediate recovery periods for the trolling motor (∼25 min).

4.
Collectively, these results demonstrate that fish experienced sublethal physiological disturbances in response to the noise propagated from recreational boating activities. This work contributes to a growing body of research that has revealed that boating activities can have a number of ecological and environmental consequences such that their use may not be compatible with aquatic protected areas. Future research should evaluate how free-swimming fish in the wild respond to such stressors relative to frequency of exposure and proximity to noise as most research to date has occurred in the laboratory.



Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

/pdf/the-effects-of-noise-disturbance-from-various-recreational-oxbng5hydp.pdf

The effects of noise disturbance from various recreational boating activities common to inland waters on the cardiac physiology of a freshwater fish, the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides).

This study recorded the scarring rate and severity for whale sharks Rhincodon typus from three Indian Ocean aggregations (Australia, Seychelles and Mozambique), and examined whether scarring (mostly attributed to boat strikes and predator attacks) influences apparent survival rates using photo-identification libraries. Identifications were based on spot-and-stripe patterns that are unique to individual whale sharks. Scarring was most prevalent in the Seychelles aggregation (67% of individuals). Predator bites were the most frequent source of scarring (aside from minor nicks and abrasions) and 27% of individuals had scars consistent with predator attacks. A similar proportion of whale sharks had blunt trauma, laceration and amputation scars, the majority of which appeared to be caused by ship collisions. Predator bites were more common (44% of individuals) and scars from ship collisions were less common at Ningaloo Reef than at the other two locations (probability of among-site differences occurring randomly = 0·0007 based on a randomized multinomial contingency analysis). In all aggregations, scars occurred most often on the caudal fin, which may result from the fin being the body part closest to the surface when boats pass over, or they may provide a large target for predator attack. No evidence was found for an effect of scarring on apparent survival (φ; mean ±s.e.) for the Ningaloo (not scarred φ= 0·858 ± 0·033; scarred φ= 0·929 ± 0·033) or Seychelles populations (not scarred φ= 0·502 ± 0·060; scarred φ= 0·538 ± 0·070). The lower apparent survival of the Seychelles population may be attributed to a high number of transient whale sharks in this aggregation that might bias estimates. This study indicates that while scarring from natural predators and smaller vessels appears to be unrelated to whale shark survival, the effect of deaths related to ship strike need to be quantified to assist in future management of this species.

Scarring patterns and relative mortality rates of Indian Ocean whale sharks

This Technical Memorandum contains summaries of presentations given at the 2007 Serious Injury Technical Workshop. These summaries (sections 3.0-6.0) were prepared by the author(s) of the presentations; therefore, statements and recommendations represent the views and opinions of the respective presenter(s). The summaries do not necessarily represent the views of the workshop Steering Committee or the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The Steering Committee did not make any substantive changes to the summaries without permission from the author(s). The Steering Committee edited the summaries only to correct grammatical errors and other minor edits. This Technical Memorandum contains summaries of plenary and subgroup discussions that occurred during Days 1-3 of the workshop. While many of the comments and suggestions provided by the individual participants represent shared opinions among the participants, the intent of these discussions was not to reach consensus recommendations. Instead, the intent was to gather input from each individual participant based on his or her expertise and experience. For this reason, the discussions summarized in this Technical Memorandum do not represent consensus recommendations from the workshop participants to NMFS. This Technical Memorandum contains recommendations of Federal Government participants and the workshop Steering Committee concerning the guidance and process for distinguishing serious from non-serious injuries. These recommendations do not represent official NMFS policy. iii Executive Summary Background The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) section 117 requires the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to prepare stock assessment reports (SAR) for all stocks of marine mammals that occur in waters under the jurisdiction of the United States. These reports summarize human-caused mortalities and serious injuries to marine mammals by source. In addition, MMPA section 118 requires commercial fisheries to reduce mortality and serious injury of marine mammals to insignificant levels approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate. This charge requires that NMFS distinguish between injuries that are serious and those that are not serious. NMFS defined " serious injury " in regulations (50 CFR 229.2) as " any injury that will likely result in mortality. " However, the MMPA and its legislative history do not provide guidance on how severe an injury must be to qualify as " serious. " To promote national consistency for interpreting the regulatory definition of serious injury, NMFS convened a workshop in April 1997 to discuss available information related to the impact of injuries to marine mammals incidental to commercial fishing operations (Angliss and DeMaster, 1998). Since …

Differentiating Serious and Non-Serious Injury of Marine Mammals: Report of the Serious Injury Technical Workshop

Watercraft-related mortality represents 1,253 (24.9%) of 5,033 Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) deaths recorded between 1 January 1979 and 31 December 2004. Wound patterns generated by collisions with watercraft are diagnostic. Sets of cuts and scrapes that are roughly equidistant and perpendicular to the direction of vessel travel are consistent with lacerations made by propeller blades. From these lesions, estimates of propeller diameter, pitch, rotation, and direction of travel may be obtained. Considerable overlap of propeller sizes and pitches on different size vessels, common use of counter rotation propellers, and numerous other complicating factors may confound efforts to accurately predict vessel size and type from propeller wounds. Of the more than one million watercraft registered in Florida, 98% are ≤12.2 m (40 ft), yet watercraft 5.3–36.6 m (17.5–120 ft) are known to have killed manatees. Analysis of a 5-yr subset of mortality data suggests that a disproportionate number of propeller-caused watercraft-related mortalities could be attributed to propeller diameters ≥43.2 cm (17 in.), inferring that these were caused by watercraft ≥12.2 m (40 ft).

Forensic methods for characterizing watercraft from watercraft-induced wounds on the florida manatee (trichechus manatus latirostris)

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Forensic methods for characterizing watercraft from watercraft-induced wounds on the florida manatee (trichechus manatus latirostris)