Volume 10: Age estimation of marine mammals with a focus on monodontids
Age estimation of marine mammals with a focus on monodontids
The North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) is proud to present Age estimation of marine mammals with a focus on monodontids, the 10th volume in the NAMMCO Scientific Publications series. This volume was edited by Drs Christina Lockyer, Aleta Hohn, Robert E.A. Stewart, Rod Hobbs and Mario Acquarone, and Barbara Stewart took the photos on the cover.
Age estimation is important in a management perspective, as it helps determine catch composition and stock demography. Different techniques are used for this, with the counting of growth layer groups in hard structures; teeth, ear plugs and baleen being the most widely used for marine mammals. In 2009, the Joint Scientific Working Group of the Canada and Greenland Joint Commission on Narwhal and Beluga and the NAMMCO Scientific Committee recommended that one or more workshops with the subject of obtaining standardized and accurate age estimates be convened by NAMMCO. This volume is the product of the review and two workshops resulting from this recommendation.
The 10th volume also marks NAMMCO’s complete transition to purely digital publishing, as it is the first volume of the NAMMCO Scientific Publications to only be available in digital format. The University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway’s Department of Digital Resources and Services was instrumental in helping us finalize this volume, especially Aysa Ekanger. The papers in this volume were first published as an “online early version”, which allowed them to be available to the scientific community before the complete volume was finished.
We would like to thank the editors, contributing authors and reviewers for making this volume possible, and for their patience during the long process of finalizing this volume. Thanks also to Jill Prewitt who was Series Editor to April 2018 and to Solveig Enoksen who took over and finalized the edition and publication of the volume.