Volume 1. Marine Mammals Principal Investigators' Reports for the Year Ending March 1976 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration April 1976 Annual Reports from Principal Investigators Volume: 1. Marine Mammals 2. Marine Birds 3. Marine Birds 4. Marine Birds 5. Fish, Plankton, Benthos, Littoral 6. Fish, Plankton, Benthos, Littoral 7. Fish, Plankton, Benthos, Littoral 8. Effects of Contaminants 9. Chemistry and Microbiology 10. Chemistry and Microbiology 11. Physical Oceanography and Meteorology 12. Geology 13. Geology 14. Ice Environmental Assessment of the Alaskan Continental Shelf Volume 1. Marine Mammals Fourth quarterand annual reportsfor the reportingperiod ending March 1976, from PrincipalInvestigators participating in a multi-year program of environmental assessment related to petroleum development on the Alaskan ContinentalShelf. The program is directed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under the sponsorship of the Bureau of Land Management. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES / Boulder, Colorado / 1976 CONTENTS Research Unit Proposer Title Page 13 James A. Estes Behavior and Reproduction of the 1 USFWS Pacific Walrus 14 James A. Estes Distribution of the Pacific Walrus 1 USFWS 34 G. Carleton Ray Analysis of Marine Mammal Remote 3 Douglas Wartzok Sensing Data Johns Hopkins U. 67 Clifford H. Fiscus Baseline Characterization: Marine 57 Howard W. Braham Mammals NWFC/NMFS 68 Clifford H. Fiscus Abundance and Seasonal Distribution 121 Howard W. Braham of Marine Mammals in the Gulf of NWFC/NMFS Alaska 69 Clifford H. Fiscus Resource Assessment: Abundance and 141 Howard W. Braham Seasonal Distribution of Bowhead and NWFC/NMFS Belukha Whales - Bering Sea 70 Clifford H. Fiscus Abundance and Seasonal Distribution 159 Willman M. Marquette of Bowhead and Belukha Whales - Howard W. Braham Beaufort Sea, Northeastern Chukchi NWFC/NMFS Sea 194 Francis H. Fay Morbidity and Mortality of Marine 183 IMS/U. of Alaska Mammals - Annual and 4th quarterly report for quarter ending December 31, 1975 229 Kenneth W. Pitcher Biology of the Harbor Seal - Phoca 247 Donald Calkins vitulina richardi ADF&G 230 John J. Burns The Natural History and Ecology of 263 Thomas J. Eley, Jr. the Bearded Seal, Erignathus barbatus ADF&G and the Ringed Seal, Phoca (Pusa) hispida 231 John J. Burns An Aerial Census of Spotted Seals, 295 Samuel J. Harbo, Jr. Phoca vitulina largha ADF&G 232 John J. Burns Trophic Relationships Among Ice 303 Lloyd F. Lowry Inhabiting Phocid Seals ADF&G iii CONTENTS Research Unit Proposer Title Page 240 Karl Schneider Assessment of the Distribution and 333 ADF&G Abundance of Sea Otters Along Kenai Peninsula, Kamishak Bay and the Kodiak Archipelago 241 Karl Schneider Distribution and Abundance of Sea 359 ADF&G Otters in Southwestern Bristol Bay 243 Donald Calkins Population Assessment, Ecology, and 371 Kenneth Pitcher Trophic Relationships of Steller Sea ADF&G Lions in the Gulf of Alaska 248/ John J. Burns The Relationships of Marine Mammal 387 249 ADF&G Distributions, Densities, and Francis H. Fay Activities to Sea Ice Conditions IMS/U. of Alaska Lewis H. Shapiro Geophys. Inst. U. of Alaska iv RU 13/14 NO REPORT SUBMITTED Icebreaker was unavailable for studies during 1975 field season. 1 Contract No. 03-6-022-35135 Research Unit No. 34 Reporting Period 1 Dec. 1975-15 March 1976 Number of Pages 14 Tables I - III Figures 1 Appendices I - V QUARTERLY REPORT ANALYSIS OF MARINE MAMMAL REMOTE SENSING DATA G. Carleton Ray and Douglas Wartzok The Johns Hopkins University 615 North Wolfe Street Baltimore, Maryland 21205 1 April 1976 Note: According to notification by the Fairbanks OCS Arctic Project Office on 29 March 1976, an Addendum to this report will be added during the month of April for the purposes of an Annual Report. 3 I. Task Objectives The objectives given below are from our Work Statement. Note that our contract includes only analysis of data, not collection of data or processing costs, and that we have been working under this contract for only about 4 months (our contract dates 1 July 1975 - 30 September 1976, but was not executed until 16 November 1975). Tasks: We will analyze remote sensing data obtained from aerial surveys of walrus populations in the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas with particular emphasis on: (1) walrus presence in an area and the ice characteristics; (2) the degree to which walrus movements are influenced by ice dynamics; and (3) the behavioral, ecological and meteoro- logical conditions influencing walrus hauling-out behavior. Walrus can only be sensed when they are hauled out. This is not an assessment project strictly speaking. It can provide assessment data, but is aimed principally towards natural history and behavioral information which will, we hope,contribute towards a reevalua- tion of assessment techniques and lead to more accurate results. We have provided background to the project in Ray and Wartzok (1974), wherein we emphasize the target question/target species concept; i.e., we concentrate on ice dynamics and visibility factors for a few species of promise. This approach is proving productive because: (1) ice dynamics have a clear bearing on the distribution of Alaska's ice-inhabiting marine mammals (cf. Burns, 1970: Fay, 1974); (2) the walrus presents an exception- ally large and contrasting image; (3) both ice and walrus are well-suited to our techniques; and (4) the walrus is of high national and international interest, a feature which provides both a large amount of correlative information and a body of co-workers. The walrus, Odobenus rosmarus, is the major, but not only, species of our choice. We also have chosen the bowhead, Balaena mysticetus, and the belukha, Delphinaptarus leucas for emphasis, but for them, we fall more clearly into an R & D effort, both scientifically and technologically. II. Field and Laboratory Activities A. Field trip schedule. Under support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center, we have been conducting remote sensing flights aboard their Convair-990 four-engine, jet aircraft. This is probably the most sophisticated remote sensing platform in existence. In order to assess this aircraft's potential, we were invited aboard during BESEX (USSR/USA Bering Sea Experiment) during February-March 1973. As a result, BESMEX (Bering Sea Marine Mammal Experiment) was initiated (Ray and Wartzok, 1974). 4 Initial BESMEX flights were in September 1974 aboard NASA/ Johnson Space Flight Center's NP-3, a propeller-driven aircraft, as the CV-990 was unavailable at that time.. Subsequently, we have joined in close collaboration with AIDJEX (the Arctic Ice Dynamics Joint Experiment) and have enjoyed three flight periods in 1975 -- April, August, and October -- which provide a perspec- tive of the full seasonal cycle for our work. The flight schedule to date is presented in Table 1. B. Scientific Party. The BESMEX Principal Investigator (G.C. Ray) has directed, and has been aboard, all flights so far undertaken. The Co-PI (D. Wartzok) has been aboard during April and August 1975, during which time a major component of work was involved with sampling technique and ice dynamics calculations. W.J. Campbell, of AIDJEX and the U.S. Geological Survey, has aided us immensely with ice dynamics and meteorological aspects. All flights have involved additional persons aboard for visual observations, spotting, and aid in in-flight interpretation. Thus, the follow- ing have joined us on one or a number of flights. To all, we are grateful for their interest and cooperation: John J. Burns, Alaska Department of Fish and Game; William J. Campbell, U.S. Geological Survey; James Coe, National Marine Fisheries Service (test flight over S. Calif.-porpoise); Thomas P. Dohl, University of California (Santa Cruz); Thomas J. Eley, Jr., Alaska Depart- ment of Fish and Game; James Estes, Fish and Wildlife Service; Francis H. Fay, University of Alaska; René Ramseier, Department of the Environment, Canada; Paul Sebesta, NASA/ARC; Larry Shults, University of Alaska; Sam Stoker, University of Alaska. In addition, a number of persons joined us on a guest basis to observe CV-990 operations. It must be noted that this contract covers costs of none of the above. Rather, it supports only the interpretative work of George H. Taylor, Lab. Technician,.at The Johns Hopkins University, who was hired specifically for this task. Mr. Taylor's duties to date are given under Methods below. C. Methods. The data-gathering process involves sets of 3 to 5 flights in each of the field periods (see Table 1). This is an insuffi- cient number for a statistically reliable ice dynamics experiment, as outlined by Ray and Wartzok (1974), but it is sufficient for achievement of technological proficiency and for gathering certain information on distribution, group structure, thermodynamics, and sea ice habitat of the target species. 5 3 Appendix I gives instrumentation aboard a typical flight. Photography and infrared imagery are our major tools to date, although we will soon analyse further the uses of microwave, SLAR, and laser profilometry for ice dynamics and ice structure. During a typical flight series, the first flight or flights are dedicated to locate concentrations of animals. We are aided in this task by weather satellite imagery which clearly shows ice distribution and by the frequent presence of co-workers under- taking similar shipboard or aerial tasks at the time. The high speed and range of the NASA aircraft allow considerable aerial coverage during the approximate 6-hour, home-to-home, flight time. In addition, working altitudes over target areas of 3-5000 ft. allow good areal coverage. An average flight of the CV-990, for example, gives 3 hours time on location or approximately a 720 nmi flight time. Coverage depends, of course, upon field of view. There is no truly precise way to estimate visual field of view from a moving aircraft (Wartzok and Ray, 1975: Appendix II).