Dear Colleagues-
We wanted to draw your attention to our recently published
manuscript on the seasonal presence of right whales in
Massachusetts Bay:
Morano, J. L., A. N. Rice, J. T. Tielens, B. J. Estabrook, A.
Murray, B. Roberts, and C. W. Clark. 2012. Acoustically detected
year-round presence of right whales in an urbanized migration
corridor. Conservation Biology 26:698-707.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01866.x/abstract
Abstract:
Species' conservation relies on understanding their seasonal
habitats and migration routes. North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena
glacialis), listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered
Species Act, migrate from the southeastern U.S. coast to Cape Cod
Bay, Massachusetts, a federally designated critical habitat, from
February through May to feed. The whales then continue north
across the Gulf of Maine to northern waters (e.g., Bay of Fundy).
To enter Cape Cod Bay, right whales must traverse an area of dense
shipping and fishing activity in Massachusetts Bay, where there
are no mandatory regulations for the protection of right whales or
management of their habitat. We used passive acoustic recordings
of right whales collected in Massachusetts Bay from May 2007
through October 2010 to determine the annual spatial and temporal
distribution of the whales and their calling activity. We detected
right whales in the bay throughout the year, in contrast to
results from visual surveys. Right whales were detected on at
least 24% of days in each month, with the exception of June 2007,
in which there were no detections. Averaged over all years, right
whale calls were most abundant from February through May. During
this period, calls were most frequent between 17:00 and 20:00
local time; no diel pattern was apparent in other months. The
spatial distribution of the approximate locations of calling
whales suggests they may use Massachusetts Bay as a conduit to
Cape Cod Bay in the spring and as they move between the Gulf of
Maine and waters to the south in September through December.
Although it is unclear how dependent right whales are on the bay,
the discovery of their widespread presence in Massachusetts Bay
throughout the year suggests this region may need to be managed to
reduce the probability of collisions with ships and entanglement
in fishing gear.
--
Aaron N. Rice, Ph.D.
Science Director
Bioacoustics Research Program
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
Cornell University
159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.
Ithaca, NY 14850-1999
Tel: 607.254.2178
Fax: 607.254.2460
Email: arice@cornell.edu
Web: http://www.nbb.cornell.edu/neurobio/aaronrice