Revised 01/15/2011 FALSE KILLER WHALE (Pseudorca crassidens): American Samoa Stock STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Samoa (this report; Pacific; Reeves; Line Islands; Killer Whale
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.233.6650; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/po2010whfk-as.pdf

False killer whales are found worldwide mainly in tropical and warm-temperate waters (Stacey et al. 1994). The species is welldocumented throughout the tropical and sub-tropical south Pacific, from Papua New Guinea and Australia to the line islands (Reeves et al. 1999). The species has been taken in the drive hunt in the Solomon Islands (Reeves et al 1999).). During small-boat surveys from 2003 to 2006 in the waters surrounding the island of Tutuila, American Samoa, false killer whales were observed during summer surveys on five occasions (Johnston et al 2008). During a shipboard survey in 2006 false killer whales were also encountered just north of the island of Ta‘u, in the Manu’a Group within American Samoa (Johnston et al. 2008). Two false killer whales were entangled near 40-Fathom Bank south of the islands by the American Samoa-based longline fishery in 2008 (Oleson 2009), indicating some false killer whales maintain a more pelagic distribution. Five genetic samples collected near Tutuila are available for comparison to other false killer whale populations throughout the Pacific (Johnston et al 2008). For the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) stock assessment reports, there are four Pacific management stocks: 1) The Hawaii Insular Stock, which includes animals found within the 25-75 nmi longline exclusion boundary surrounding the main Hawaiian Islands, 2) The Hawaii Pelagic Stock, which includes animals found within the U.S. EEZ of the Hawaiian Islands but outside the 25-75 nmi longline exclusion zone, 3) The Palmyra Stock, which includes animals found within the U.S. EEZ of the Palmyra Atoll, and 4) The American Samoa Stock, which includes animals found within the U.S. EEZ American