North Atlantic Right Whale Sighting Survey (NARWSS) and Right Whale Sighting Advisory System (RWSAS) 2014 results summary

• Main Authors: Khan, Christin Brangwynne, Glass, Allison H., Duley, Peter, Gatzke, Jennifer, Crowe, Leah, Cole, Timothy V. N.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center 2016
• Subjects: Right whales > Detection > Atlantic Coast North America > Observations.; Howell; Eubalaena glacialis; North Atlantic; North Atlantic right whale
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7289/v59p2znn; https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/9051

The North Atlantic Right Whale Sighting Survey (NARWSS) is a NOAA Fisheries program, which locates and records the seasonal distribution of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) off the northeastern coast of the United States. NARWSS flights conducted in 2014 followed systematic tracklines with randomized starting locations within 12 primary survey blocks: Cashes Ledge, coastal Maine, Franklin Basin, Georges Basin, Georges Shoal, Great South Channel, Howell Swell, Jeffreys Ledge, Jordan Basin, Lindenkohl Basin, Rhode Island Sound, and Stellwagen Bank (Figure 1). During 2014, NARWSS flew 245 hours over 55 surveys (Table 1), including a directed flight over right whales in Cape Cod Bay and 2 sawtooth flights in Atlantis Canyon. NARWSS detected 278 right whales (including possible duplicate sightings of the same individuals), with 244 right whales sighted within survey blocks and 34 right whales sighted during transit to or from survey areas. Table 1 summarizes survey effort and right whale sightings by month. Figure 2(ad) displays the locations of right whales and survey effort by season. In 2014, NARWSS did not conduct aerial surveys from February - March or August - October. In July, surveys were conducted in Canadian waters and are detailed in a separate report (Cole and Henry 2015). A comparison of NARWSS flights, flight hours, and right whale sightings from 2002 through 2014 is included (Figure 3, Table 2). Although sightings in 2014 rebounded compared to the low rates in 2013, the number of right whales seen per flight hour was still lower than observed between 2007 and 2011. Internal and external requests for NARWSS survey data are summarized in Table 3.