The National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) conducts research on marine mammals important to the mission of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with particular attention to issues related to marine mammals off the coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California. Research projects focus on ecology and behavior, population dynamics, life history, and status and trends.  Information is provided to various domestic and international organizations to assist in developing rational and appropriate management regimes for marine resources under NOAA's jurisdiction. These organizations include the NMFS Alaska and Northwest Regional Offices, the NMFS Office of Protected Resources, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the International Whaling Commission, and the Arctic Council. 

Research conducted by NMML utilizes a variety of methods and tools to obtain needed information. Determination of status and trends of marine mammal populations requires information on abundance, stock structure, mortality and net productivity. To obtain these data, censuses are carried out from ships, aircraft and on land. Radio and satellite-linked telemetry is utilized to determine movements and migrations, critical feeding areas and depths, and other behavioral data. Sophisticated analyses and modeling are carried out to determine necessary population parameters. Research programs are carried out cooperatively with many other federal, state and private sector collaborators.

Quarterly Reports

• Seal Disease Outbreak in Arctic - Updated Oct. 2012
• Chuck Fowler Retires with 35 Years of Federal Service
  
• Satellite Tracking of Adult Female Steller Sea Lions in the Western-Central Aleutian Islands Reveals Diverse Foraging Behaviors
  
• Soviet Illegal Whaling in the North Pacific: Reconstructing the True Catches
  
• Accounting for Species Identification Errors from Aerial Surveys of Ice-associated Seals
  
• Aerial Surveys of Arctic Marine Mammals Project: Preliminary Results From the 2012 Field Season
  
• Studies of Northern Fur Seals Breeding at the Northern and Southern Extent of the Range
  
• Eastern Aleutian Islands Humpback Whale Satellite-Tagging Project
  
• Bering Okhotsk Seal Surveys (BOSS): Joint U.S.-Russian Aerial Surveys
  
• By Land, Sea, and Air: A Collaborative Steller Sea Lion Research Cruise in the Aleutian Islands
  
• Cetacean Distribution and Abundance in Relation to Oceanographic Domains on the Eastern Bering Sea Shelf in June and July of 2002, 2008, and 2010
  
• U.S. and Russia Collaborate to Study Ice Seals
  
• Changes in Northern Fur Seal Foraging Behavior with Increasing Population Density on Bogoslof Island, Alaska
  
• Southeast Alaska Harbor Porpoise Research
  
• Habitat Use and Seasonal Movements of Adult Bearded Seals in Kotzebue Sound, Alaska
  
• Using Traditional Knowledge and Archived Documents to Aid Research and Conservation Goals for the Northern Fur Seal
  
• Finding the Needle in the Haystack: Using Sonobuoys to Locate a Critically Endangered Species
  
• Researchers from the Polar Ecosystems Program Census Harbor Seals Along Coastal Alaska
  
• Life History and Distribution Patterns of Fishes and Cephalopods: A Window into the Foraging Ecology of Pinnipeds
  
• Pushed to the Edge: Soviet Catches of Right Whales in the Eastern North Pacific
  
• The Endangered Beluga Whales of Cook Inlet, Alaska
  
• Additional National Marine Mammal Laboratory quaterly reports

Publications

• BURNS, D., L. BROOKS, P. CLAPHAM, and P. HARRISON. 2013. Between-year synchrony in migratory timing of individual humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae. Mar. Mammal Sci. 29(1):228-235. 
  
• HUNT, G. L., A. L. BLANCHARD, P. BOVENG, P. DALPADADO, K. F. DRINKWATER, L. EISNER, R. R. HOPCROFT, K. M. KOVACS, B. L. NORCROSS, P. RENAUD, M. REIGSTAD, M. RENNER, H. R. SKJOLDAL, A. WHITEHOUSE, and R. A. WOODGATE. 2013. The Barents and Chukchi seas: Comparison of two Arctic shelf ecosystems. J. Mar. Sys. 109-110:43-68.  
  
• TOWELL, R. G., R. R. REAM, J. R. THOMASON, K. A. CALL, T. K. ZEPPELIN, and R. CARUSO. 2012. Mass, length, and sex ratios of northern fur seal pups on the Pribilof Islands, 2010, p. 26-40. In J. W. Testa (editor), Fur Seal Investigations, 2010-2011. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-AFSC-241. 
  
• TOWELL, R. G., R. R. REAM, J. T. STERLING, M. WILLIAMS, and J. L. BENGTSON. 2012. Population assessment of northern fur seals on the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, 2010-2011, p.8-25. In J. W. Testa (editor), Fur Seal Investigations, 2010-2011. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-AFSC-241. 
  
• TESTA, J. W. 2012. Introduction, p. 1-7. In J. W. Testa (editor), Fur Seal Investigations, 2010-2011. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS-AFSC-241. 
  
• RONE, B. K., C. L. BERCHOK, J. L. CRANCE, and P. J. CLAPHAM. 2012. Using air-deployed passive sonobuoys to detect and locate critically endangered North Pacific right whales. Mar. Mammal Sci. 28(4):E528-E538. 
  
• ROLLAND, R. M., S. E. PARKS, K. E. HUNT, M. CASTELLOTE, P. J. CORKERON, D. P. NOWACEK, S. K. WASSER, and S. D. KRAUS. 2012. Evidence that ship noise increases stress in right whales. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. [Biol]. 279:2363-2368. 
  
• ORR, A. J., S. D. NEWSOME, J. L. LAAKE, G. R. VanBLARICOM, and R. L. DeLONG. 2012. Ontogenetic dietary information of the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) assessed using stable isotope analysis. Mar. Mammal Sci. 28(4):714-732. 
  
Additional National Marine Mammal Laboratory Publications

Posters

• Bering-Okhotsk Seal Surveys (BOSS): Joint US-Russian Aerial Surveys for Ice-Associated Seals, April – May 2012
  By:  MICHAEL CAMERON, VLADIMIR CHERNOOK
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
  (2013 poster, .pdf, 5.33 MB)   Online.
  
• Short- and Long-term Distribution of Marine Mammals in the Chukchi Sea
  By:  STEPHANIE L. GRASSIA, CATHERINE L. BERCHOK, JESSICA L. CRANCE, BRENDA K. RONE, AMY S. KENNEDY, PHILLIP J. CLAPHAM
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
  (2013 poster, .pdf, 1.86 MB)   Online.
  
• Stereotyped, Repetitive Gunshot Call Patterns Produced by the North Pacific Right Whale, Eubalaena japonica
  By:  JESSICA L. CRANCE, CATHERINE L. BERCHOK
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
  (2013 poster, .pdf, 1.86 MB)   Online.
  
• Cetaceans of BOWFEST: Distribution Off Barrow, Alaska 2007-2011
  By:  KIM E. W. SHELDEN, KIMBERLY T. GOETZ, DAVID J. RUGH, JULIE A. MOCKLIN, LINDA VATE BRATTSTRÖM, CHRISTY L. SIMS
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
  (2013 poster, .pdf, 4.42 MB)   Online.
  
• Bowhead Whale Feeding Ecology Study (Bowfest) Five Years in Review
  By:  DAVID RUGH
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
  (2013 poster, .pdf, 2.41 MB)   Online.
  
• Ice-Associated Seal Detection and Identification from the 2012 Bering-Okhotsk Seal Surveys (BOSS)
  By:  ERIN MORELAND, BRETT McCLINTOCK, MICHAEL CAMERON, PETER BOVENG
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
  (2013 poster, .pdf, 2.26 MB)   Online.
  
• Results from Five Years of Aerial Photographic Data from the Bowhead Whale Feeding Ecology Study (Bowfest)
  By:  JULIE A. MOCKLIN, LINDA VATE BRATTSTRÖM, DAVID J. RUGH, KIMBERLY T. GOETZ, KIM E. W. SHELDEN, CHRISTY L. SIMS
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
  (2013 poster, .pdf, 1.32 MB)   Online.
  
• A Comparison of Altimeters Used in Aerial Photogrammetry
  By:  KIMBERLY GOETZ, DAVID RUGH, WILLIAM KOSKI, DON LEROI, WAYNE PERRYMAN
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2013
  (2013 poster, .pdf, 812 KB)   Online.
  
Additional National Marine Mammal Laboratory Posters