2021 Report of the Section on Marine Birds and Mammals

S-MBM – 2021 2021 Report of the Section on Marine Birds and Mammals The meeting of the Section on Marine Birds and Mammals (S-MBM; under the auspices of the BIO Committee) was held virtually on September 29, 2021) from 17:00–20:00 hours (PDT; UTC-7hrs) via Zoom, hosted by the PICES Secretariat. [...] In response to the question, “Which parameters and processes are critical to test the impact of closed areas for highly migratory species?”, the majority of 25 respondents considered movement in/out of MPAs the most important. [...] Zerbini), Convenors of the Sub-Committees and Working Groups and the Secretariat cooperated to hold a series of ‘virtual’ pre-meetings and workshops prior to the Committee meeting. [...] The Committee reiterated to the Commission the great value of the data contributed by the IWC-POWER cruises which have covered many regions of the North Pacific Ocean not surveyed in recent years. [...] In particular, we plan on examining the influence of climate variability and change on trophic linkages and, consequently the distribution and abundance of marine birds and mammals in the North Pacific.