2022 Pinniped Unusual Mortality Event along the Maine Coast Dead Animal Locations

Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, an unusual mortality event (UME) is defined as "a stranding that is unexpected; involves a significant die-off of any marine mammal population; and demands immediate response." To understand the health of marine mammal populations, scientists study unusual mortality events. Understanding and investigating these events is important because they can serve as indicators of ocean health. To fill this role, NOAA Fisheries established the Working Group on Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events in 1991. The working group was formalized in 1992 with amendments to the MMPA amendments. An UME is determined to be "unusual" by the working group if it meets one or more of the seven criteria. The Unusual Mortality Event involving pinnipeds in Maine started June 1, 2022 and is currently active. The event is being investigated by NOAA Fisheries and partners and was defined as occurring along the east coast of North America in Maine.

This dataset was created to visualize dead animal locations associated with the 2022 Pinniped Unusual Mortality Event along the Maine Coast. For information on the proper use of the dataset refer to the Use Constraints metadata section.

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