Marine Mammals and Fishing, Page 35 MODELING AND MAPPING TROPHIC OVERLAP BETWEEN MARINE MAMMALS AND COMMERCIAL FISHERIES IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC

The impact that fishing operations may have on marine mammals and other components of marine ecosystems is a major concern today. Fisheries, in addition to causing by-catch mortalities, affect marine mammals through direct and indirect competition for the same food sources. Our goal was to assess the potential trophic impact of fisheries on mammal populations in the North Atlantic by quantifying the overlap in resource exploitation in space and time using high-resolution modeling and mapping. We developed a relatively simple model to estimate feeding requirements (specified by foo