Estimating trends in abundance of dolphins associated with tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, using sightings data collected on commercial tuna vessels

Summarizes the methods for estimating relative abundance of seven dolphin stocks in the E tropical Pacific Ocean. Estimates of relative abundance, which may show large year-to-year fluctuations, are smoothed to provide estimates of the underlying trend in dolphin abundance between 1976-1988. The bootstrap method provides estimation of precision in a way that allows trend estimates to be used for management purposes, without the need to assume that trends in abundance are linear. -from Authors