Rationale: Monitoring the dynamics of non-ice associated marine mammals in the Barents Sea area is essential for understanding overall ecosystem dynamics and as a basis for assessing and mitigating impacts of human activities on the marine fauna.
Theme: Biotic
Component: Marine mammals
Type of indicator: E/I, describes state of the ecosystem but is impacted by human activities.
Priority of indicator: e, essential.
Parameters:
• Abundance and spatial distribution of marine mammals (PINRO, MMBI, IMR)
Responsible institution:
Balaenopterid distributions as observed in the western Barents Sea during the ecosystem survey. Green shades: Averaged densities of baleen whales (fin, minke and humpback whales) in the years 2003-2007. Dots: observations of fin (blue), humpback (yellow) and minke (red) whales during the 2010 ecosystem survey. Russian observations are not included in the figure. Source: IMR