07/16/2021 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/16/2021 11:20
Scientists from NOAA's Southeast Fisheries Science Center recently completed the first leg of a mission to survey marine mammals and other protected species in waters off the southeast coast of the United States. They are locating, identifying, and counting marine mammals from both the NOAA ShipGordon Gunterand a NOAA Twin Otteraircraft.
Usually, we conduct these marine mammal surveysannually but were not able to collect data in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The beginning of this trip has also had some challenges-two tropical storms have made for rough seas and grounded flights.
Even though this research trip is focused on marine mammals, another team of scientists were watching the skies instead. The team of seabird observerscounted 3,074 individual birds of 22 species. The top three sightings were Great Shearwater (Ardenna gravis), Wilson's Storm-Petrel (Oceanites oceanicus), and Leach's Storm-Petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous).
The team surveying from the plane began their work on June 15 working out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. They will make their way north along the U.S. east coast, flying out of St. Augustine, Florida, Charleston, South Carolina, Newport News, Virginia, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Hyannis, Massachusetts. They will fly as far north as the waters off of Nova Scotia and conclude the survey on September 15. While the aerial surveys are focused on marine mammals and sea turtles in coastal and continental shelf waters, they do sometimes record large fish sightings as well.
This survey is part of the Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS), a multi-agency research program with partners from NOAA, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Navy. A similar survey, also part of AMAPPS, is being led by NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Centerin waters off the Northeast United States. Both of these surveys work toward the combined goal of surveying all of the U.S. Atlantic waters from the Florida Keys to the waters off of Maine and southern Nova Scotia.
Collecting data on marine mammal, sea turtle, and seabird abundance and distribution regularly over time is crucial to understanding population status and trends in relation to ecological and environmental change and human-caused stressors. Surveys like this one are an important part of the work researchers at the science center do-and we're happy to be doing them again this year.