Portland

An agenda for marine-mammal research is being developed in the United States to try to save a range of often-elusive species from possible extinction.

More than 50 experts from around the world met in Portland, Oregon, on 4–7 August to consider priorities for research on dwindling populations of mammals such as whales, porpoises, sea lions, seals, otters, manatees and polar bears.

The US Marine Mammal Commission sponsored the meeting and will make recommendations later to Congress, which is considering changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The US Navy and some commercial interests want to reduce protection, whereas marine biologists want to strengthen it.

Speakers at the Portland meeting backed development of a comprehensive monitoring and systematic sampling network to identify health issues and aid remedial plans. The creation of reservations in US waters — where research could be done and regulatory regimes tried out — was also proposed.

“I am encouraged by the research ideas at the workshop,” says John Hildebrand, who studies mammal acoustics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. “But I'm discouraged by the magnitude of the problems.”

For more than 20 years, marine mammals have been protected by US federal law. But several species have been hit by factors such as loss of habitat, pollution, ocean noise and deaths inflicted by watercraft. The problems are worst for species, such as whales, that traverse unprotected international waters.

Jay Barlow, a marine biologist at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, told the meeting it was so difficult to chart marine-mammal populations that 90% of a species could be lost before researchers realized it was in crisis.

Daniel Goodman, a zoological statistician at Montana State University in Bozeman, said that tracking needed new funding, not money from existing programmes.

There was little confidence that the Bush administration or the Republican-controlled Congress would provide the money. But scientists are optimistic that new research initiatives could be created.

On 19 August, a congressional subcommittee will hold a hearing in San Diego, where populations of seals and sea lions are so thriving that some residents and fishers are expected to call for a cull.