"Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program"

A team of NOAA Fisheries scientists set out on a month-long research survey onboard the NOAA ship Reuben Lasker to try to locate the rare North Pacific right whale, possibly the most endangered marine mammal to visit U.S. waters.

Vessel Reuben Lasker to assess gray whales and search for highly endangered right whales.

The Eastern Bering Sea Canyon Survey.

The following provides lists of Marine Mammal Laboratory publications by year from 2000-2015. A citable list of all MML publications for each year can be downloaded in PDF from the links below.

Cook Inlet beluga whales, Delphinapterus leucas, are currently listed as ‘Endangered’ under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) began monitoring this population during the 1990s after it was added to the ESA Candidate Species list in 1988. Monitoring efforts included aerial surveys, and in 1995, the first attempts to capture and satellite-tag whales. Working with Canadian scientists and Alaska Native subsistence hunters in 1995 and 1997, tagging methods were adapted to conditions in Cook Inlet (muddy water, extreme tides, and extensive mudflats), culminating in successful capture and tracking of a whale during the summer of 1999. This was followed by three more years of capture and tagging studies during late summer. Tags were attached to 18 whales between 1999 and 2002.

Arctic Whale Ecology Study (ARCWEST)/Chukchi Acoustics, Oceanography, and Zooplankton Study-extension (CHAOZ-X) 2014 Cruise Plan.

Through an Inter-Agency agreement (IA) between the National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), NMML is conducting a dedicated multi-year study to determine relationships between dominant currents passing from the Bering Sea into and through the Chukchi Sea and prey resources delivered to the Barrow Arch area (an area of high bowhead whale and prey concentrations between Wainwright and Smith Bay), and to provide information about the dynamic nature of those relationships relative to whale distribution and habitat utilization in the eastern Chukchi and extreme western Beaufort Seas. This study will also provide important baseline data on the occurrence, distribution, and habitat use of large whales in an area that is subject to rapid change in climate and human industrial development. This quarterly report covers the period of this study between January and March 2014. The major activities during the first quarter of 2014 consisted of planning for the 2014 Arctic Whale Ecology Study (ARCWEST)/Chukchi Acoustics, Oceanography, and Zooplankton Study-extension (CHAOZ-X) cruise and the analysis of data collected during the 2013 ARCWEST cruise.

Through an Inter-Agency agreement (IA) between the National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), NMML is conducting a dedicated multi-year study to determine relationships between dominant currents passing from the Bering Sea into and through the Chukchi Sea and prey resources delivered to the Barrow Arch area (an area of high bowhead whale and prey concentrations between Wainwright and Smith Bay), and to provide information about the dynamic nature of those relationships relative to whale distribution and habitat utilization in the eastern Chukchi and extreme western Beaufort Seas. This study will also provide important baseline data on the occurrence, distribution, and habitat use of large whales in an area that is subject to rapid change in climate and human industrial development. This quarterly report covers the period of this study from April through June 2014. The major activities during the second quarter of 2014 consisted of planning for the 2014 Arctic Whale Ecology Study (ARCWEST)/Chukchi Acoustics, Oceanography, and Zooplankton Study-extension (CHAOZ-X) cruise and the analysis of data collected during the 2013 ARCWEST cruise.

Through an Inter-Agency agreement (IA) between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), NMML is conducting a dedicated multi-year study to determine relationships between dominant currents passing from the Bering Sea into and through the Chukchi Sea and prey resources delivered to the Barrow Arch area (an area of high bowhead whale and prey concentrations between Wainwright and Smith Bay), and to provide information about the dynamic nature of those relationships relative to whale distribution and habitat utilization in the eastern Chukchi and extreme western Beaufort Seas. This study will also provide important baseline data on the occurrence, distribution, and habitat use of large whales in an area that is subject to rapid change in climate and human industrial development. This quarterly report covers the period of this study from July through September 2014. The major activities during the third quarter of 2014 consisted of planning and beginning the 2014 Arctic Whale Ecology Study (ARCWEST)/Chukchi Acoustics, Oceanography, and Zooplankton Study-extension (CHAOZ-X) cruise. The cruise took place and the chartered research vessel R/V Aquila, left Nome, AK on 7 September, and is due to return to Dutch Harbor, AK on 20 October. Twenty-one scientists, technicians, and observers from nine different laboratories and institutions participated on the ARCWEST cruise.

The 2014 Arctic Whale Ecology Study (ARCWEST)/Chukchi Acoustics, Oceanography, and Zooplankton Study-extension (CHAOZ-X) cruise took place on board the R/V Aquila. The cruise began in Nome, AK on 7 September 2014 and ended in Dutch Harbor, AK on 20 October 2014. Chief Scientist was Dr. Catherine Berchok, and the survey team consisted of 21 scientists representing nine different laboratories (for full personnel list, see Appendix 1). In summary, a total of 20 passive acoustic and 17 oceanographic moorings were retrieved, and 21 passive acoustic and 27 oceanographic moorings were redeployed. A total of 80 hydrographic and 61 zooplankton stations were conducted, 305 sonobuoys were deployed for 24 hour passive acoustic monitoring, over 1,500 nm surveyed for marine mammals and over 450 nm surveyed for seabirds.