Survey of Federally Funded Marine Mammal Research

The Survey of Federally Funded Marine Mammal Research (the Survey) is an online survey and data repository. It provides federal funding information on marine mammal research by agency, species, objective, and location. The Survey aids the Marine Mammal Commission (the Commission) in fulfilling its duties under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) by helping identify gaps in research effort or funding, illuminate areas of strength in federal research investment, and inform recommendations on needed agency actions and budget priorities.

Departments and agencies that undertake or provide funding for marine mammal research activities include: Department of Commerce (National Marine Fisheries Service, National Ocean Service, and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research), Department of Defense (U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Air Force, and Environmental Research Programs), Department of the Interior (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management), Department of Health and Human Services (National Institutes of Health), Department of Homeland Security (U.S. Coast Guard), Department of Energy, Department of State, and several independent agencies (National Science Foundation, Marine Mammal Commission, Smithsonian Institution, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

Scope and Nature of Projects Included

The Survey focuses on marine mammal research projects/programs defined as any or all of:

1. projects funded as part of a recognized research/grants program (including funding for workshops, meetings, and conferences),
2. projects supported in response to hypothesis driven scientific research and monitoring (excluding monitoring for mitigation only), and
3. projects or activities conducted in whole or part to meet the requirements to prepare and update stock assessment reports under section 117 of the MMPA, including the collection and evaluation of abundance data, stock delineation and status information, and estimates of human-caused mortality and serious injury of marine mammals.

Basic or applied research projects may focus on marine mammal biology, ecology, population dynamics, stock assessment, ecosystem relationships, animal health, or on a variety of human impacts such as whaling, fishing, pollution, sound, coastal development, shipping, and tourism. The social and economic aspects of human/marine mammal interactions, such as the value of whale watching or the effect of growing populations of pinnipeds on coastal communities, can also be the focus of a project. Projects can also involve the development, testing, and deployment of a wide range of scientific methods and technologies. The work may be conducted in the field, a laboratory, an office, or a captive facility, and may involve observations, experimentation, monitoring, computer and statistical analyses, or the use of traditional ecological knowledge.

For every project reported, the Survey captures basic identifying information (e.g., title, principal investigators, sponsoring agency, and performing organization), objectives, focal species, location (large marine ecosystem), disposition of the data, and the amount of the project’s funding.

Use of Survey Results and Data

The collection of the project data allows the Commission to describe the breadth of marine mammal activities taking place or funded across the federal government. These data can be used to describe the distribution of federal funding by agencies, research objectives, geographic regions, or species.

Among other things, the Commission uses the results of the Survey to:

• • inform the advice the Commission provides to Congress and the Administration,
  • illuminate areas of strength and gaps in federal research investment and effort,
  • inform the Commission’s recommendations on agency actions and budget priorities,
  • help determine session themes for the Commission’s annual meetings,
  • help select the focus of Commission Requests for Proposals and research program priorities, and
  • identify potential topic areas for workshops, dedicated survey efforts or more systematic program reviews.

The results are also a valuable resource for other federal agencies as they plan their research and management strategies, work to avoid duplication of effort or leverage existing resources and expertise, and strive to identify opportunities for partnering and sharing data with other agencies. The Survey provides a basis for a more cost-effective and coherent national strategy for studying marine mammals and their ecosystems.

Implementation of the Survey: Past to Present

The Commission conducted the Survey annually in paper form between 1977 and 2001. Beginning in 2009 the Commission switched to an online data entry system and continued to share Survey results as paper reports. To see the two most recent paper Survey reports in pdf, click here for fiscal year 2014 and here for fiscal year 2015. 

Following completion of the Survey for fiscal year 2015, the Commission received extensive feedback from its federal partners asking about the Survey’s purpose, the intended use of the results, and the need to collect the level of detail requested on funding lines and amounts.

This led the Commission to suspend data collection, hold a series of consultations with the agencies contributing the most to marine mammal research, and undertake significant revisions to the Survey. Input from National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and U.S. Navy was incorporated into the redesign of the Survey, and it is now simplified to reduce the reporting burden on participating agencies and increase the value of the compiled data.

The data call for FY 2023 ran from October 18, 2023 to December 22, 2023. The summary results for FY 2023 will be posted in the spring.

Previous FY Summary Results

• FY 2022
• FY 2021
• FY 2020
• FY 2019