182187_Draft_SOW.docx

Statement of Work

1.0 Background

The Southern California Offshore Range (SCORE) encompasses a broad area extending over 200 miles south from the northern end of San Clemente Island (SCI), west beyond Cortez Bank, and southeast into the international waters off the northern Baja California coast. Within these boundaries, off the western shore of SCI, lies the Southern California Antisubmarine Warfare Range (SOAR). Located in the San Nicolas basin, the range consists of 172 bottom-mounted hydrophones designed to track underwater vehicles. The range covers an area of over 600 nmi2 in water that ranges from approximately 1,200 to 2,000 m in depth. These hydrophones are being leveraged to develop marine mammal passive acoustic monitoring tools.

The SOAR hydrophone cables are terminated on SCI. A Marine Mammal Monitoring on Navy Ranges (M3R) digital signal processor (DSP) monitors the hydrophones from the Cable Termination Shelter (CTS) located on SCI. Processed data is transmitted to the SCORE Range Operations Center (ROC) located on the mainland at the North Island Naval Air Station (NAS) via a microwave link. The M3R tools allow real-time, passive acoustic monitoring of all range hydrophones for transient signals including marine mammal vocalizations [1].

Long-term studies using photo-identification, genetics, and tagging to measure population size, structure, and trends can provide a particularly robust basis for assessing population-level impacts of operations on marine mammal populations, and are critical to the primary objectives of the US Navy’s Integrated Comprehensive Monitoring Program (ICMP). Demographic data, including the age-sex class structure of a population, may provide insights into cumulative impacts on long-lived species that might not appear in acoustic or visual density data [e.g. 2]. A recent ONR-supported analysis [3] determined that a long-term photo-identification provided the best power to detect an actual trend in the Cuvier’s beaked whale population at SOAR, and Booth et. al [4] suggest photo-identification and biopsy are critical tools for monitoring populations. Therefore, in areas such as SOAR, where ICMP species of interest such as Cuvier’s beaked whales and fin whales occur regularly, there is a need to conduct on-water surveys which combine photo-identification, biopsy, and tagging, focused on those species. A combination of the real-time M3R tools and visual surveys on SOAR can help maximize the Navy’s need to conduct effective marine mammal monitoring as part of the ICMP. The Navy also has a need to continue long-term population demographic studies within SCORE to assess population status of potentially sensitive species (beaked whales), and ESA-listed fin whales.

2.0 Scope

Completion of this work will satisfy the regulatory need to discern the behavioral responses of beaked whales and fin whales to Navy Mid Frequency Active (MFA) sonar. Individual responses to real Navy sound sources, as recorded by tags previously deployed by Marine Ecology and Telemetry Research, will inform Navy take estimates a key aspect of NOAA/NMFS regulatory requirements. Satellite tag data collected by the contractor can be reviewed and compared against Government provided sonar data to estimate received levels on tagged whales and interpret any possible response. This contract is in support of the M3R program and will be funded with Operations and Maintenance, Navy money.

3.0 Applicable Documents

3.5 Falcone EA, Keene EL, Rone BK, Schorr GS 2018. Distribution and demographics of fin whales in the Southern California Bight. Final Report to the US Navy Pacific Fleet Integrated Comprehensive Monitoring Program, Award No. N66604-17-P-272

3.6 Falcone, E. A. et al., 2017. Diving behavior of Cuvier's beaked whales exposed to two types of military sonar. Royal Society Open Science.

3.7 Falcone, E. et al., 2009. Sighting characteristics and photo-identification of Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris) near San Clemente Island, California: a key area for beaked whales and the military? Marine Biology, Volume 156, pp. 2631-2640.

4.0 Tasking

4.1 The contractor shall conduct vessel surveys in coordination with M3R and SCORE, with the intent to locate, identify, photograph, biopsy and/or tag Cuvier’s beaked whales and fin whales with effort focused on SOAR. Contractor shall be responsible for providing a vessel and all related equipment suitable for photographing, tagging, and biopsy work. The vessel must be equipped with AIS, along with all appropriate safety, communication, and navigation equipment. Contractor shall provide five satellite tags capable of recording 28 days of dive and movement data. The contractor shall deploy LIMPET satellite tags on Cuvier’s beaked whales, and operate a vessel around Cuvier’s beaked whales. Two to three field efforts are required and will be scheduled to coincide with available support from M3R (up to 30 days); Contractor will state the maximum number of days they can support maximizing range availability and weather. The contractor is responsible for sequencing, sexing, and archiving up to 50 genetic samples collected from fin whales or Cuvier’s beaked whales.

The Contractor shall participate in planning meetings by phone, as well as attend one in-person 3-day review expected to be held in San Diego, CA. The contractor shall be responsible for tabulating all data in a format matching that of the Navy’s ICMP data standards, including tables, figures and maps to support sighting and effort details for two reports: 1) An interim report summarizing effort and sighting details for submission by December 31, 2018 and 2) A final report summarizing all effort and sighting details.

For species photographed which have existing catalog curators (e.g. fin whales, Cuvier’s beaked whales, blue whales, bottlenose dolphins, etc.), all photographs and sighting details will be shared with the appropriate organization as soon as possible, but no later than the end date of the contract. Images must be sorted by sightings with associated metadata written to all images. Movement data collected by tags deployed under this contract must be uploaded to the Animal Telemetry Network by the Contractor.

Tasking under 4.1 is to start immediately upon issuance of this contract, the contractor shall possess appropriate Research Permits and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approvals at the time of proposal submission and covering the duration of the contract.

4.2 Using data collected previously by the Navy and the contractor, the contractor shall analyze population structure, demographics, and distribution of Cuvier’s beaked whales and fin whales within the Southern California Range Complex. The contractor shall also compile and analyze any new data obtained by the Navy and/or their contractors from within the SoCal Range complex during the period of this contract.

The contractor shall compare photographs of Cuvier’s beaked whales and fin whales to existing MarEcotel catalogs to contribute to long-term studies with this species. The contractor shall report new population estimates based on updated mark-recapture results.

4.3 The Contractor shall identify periods from 2016-2017 when tagged whales were present within the bounds of SOAR. NUWC will provide the contractor a limited summary of operations involving sonar coincident to tagged whales in the area as Government Furnished Information (GFI). The contractor shall compare modeled locations of tagged whales against the sonar operations to generate estimated received levels and assess possible behavior responses of tagged whale. These results will be compared to past analysis for data from 2014 - 2015 [5,6].

4.4 The contractor shall attend one annual meeting associated with the US Navy Marine Species Monitoring Technical Review Meeting, tentatively planned to be held in March of 2019 in San Diego, CA.

4.5 The contractor shall generate an interim report with initial results through December 2018 for inclusion in the US Navy’s monitoring report to NOAA. A final report with all results shall be provided at the end of the contract period.

5.0 Government Furnished Information

5.1 For Official Use Only (FOUO) document summarizing sonar and live-fire operations/locations/times will be provided to the contractor for use in Task 4.3.